is only mentioned in the Song of Solomon, iv, 14, as one of the many valuable products of an Eastern garden. There is not much doubt that this was the crocus sativa known to medicine from the earliest times. The Hebrew word, karkum, was kurkum in ancient Arabic, and this is given in Arab dictionaries as equivalent to the more modern za-faran from which our word is derived. POMEGRANATES are always referred to in the Scriptures as luxuries. The spies sent by Moses to see the land of Canaan brought back pomegranates with figs and grapes (Numbers, xiii, 23); the same fruits are promised in Deut. (viii, 8); the withering of the pomegranate tree is, with that of the vine and fig tree, noted by the prophet Joel (i, 12) as a sign of desolation. It is still highly prized as a fruit in the East. THE POULTICE OF FIGS applied to Hezekiah’s boil (2 Kings, xx, 7) is an interesting reminiscence of Israelitish home medicine. The fig tree often appears in the Bible. Some very learned Biblical commentators (Celsius, Gesenius, Knobel, among them) have believed that the fig leaves with which Adam and Eve made aprons were in fact the very long leaves of the banana tree. This, however, is scarcely possible, as the banana is a native of the Malay Archipelago, and there is no evidence that it was known to the Jews at the time when the Pentateuch was written. SPIKENARD is mentioned three times in the Song of Songs (i, 12, iv, 13, iv, 14), and in the New Testament on two occasions (Mark xiv, 3, and John xii, 3), a box of spikenard ointment, “very costly” and “very precious” is, in the instance recorded by St. Mark, poured on the Saviour’s head, and in the narrative of St. John, is used to anoint His feet. On both occasions we are told that the value of this box or vase was three hundred pence. It is explained in the Revised Version that the coin named was equivalent to about 8½d. The price of the ointment used was therefore over ten pounds.