=APPLE OF SODOM.=--The _Solanum Sodomeum_ is a purple Egg-plant of which the fruit is naturally large and handsome. It is, however, subject to the attacks of an insect (a species of _Cynips_), which punctures the rind, and converts the interior of the fruit into a substance like ashes, while the outside remains fair and beautiful. It is found on the desolate shores of the Dead Sea, on the site of those cities of the plain the dreadful judgment on which is recorded in sacred history. Hence the fruit, called the Apple of Sodom, has acquired a sinister reputation, and is regarded as the symbol of sin. Its first appearance, it is said, is always attended with a bitter north-east wind, and therefore ships for the Black Sea take care to sail before the harbinger of bad weather comes forth. The fruit is reputed to be poisonous. Josephus, the Jewish historian, speaks of them as having “a fair colour, as if they were fit to be eaten; but if you pluck them with your hand, they vanish into smoke and ashes.” Milton, describing an Apple which added new torments to the fallen angels, compares it to the Apples of Sodom:-- “Greedily they pluck’d The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed. This mere delusion, not the touch but taste Deceived; they fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit Chewed bitter ashes.” Henry Teonge, who visited the country round the Dead Sea in 1675, describes it as being “all over full of stones which looke just like burnt syndurs, and on some low shrubbs there grow small round things which are called Apples, but no witt like them. They are somewhat fayre to looke at, but touch them and they smoulder all to black ashes, like soote both for looks and smell.”--The name Apple of Sodom is also given to a kind of Gall-nut, which is found growing on various species of dwarf Oaks on the banks of the Jordan.--Dead Sea Apples is a term applied to the Bussorah Gall-nut, which is formed on the Oak _Quercus infectoria_ by an insect, and being of a bright ruddy purple, but filled with a gritty powder, they are suggestive of the deceptive Apple of Sodom. “Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips.” APPLE OF PARADISE, OR ADAM’S APPLE.--See Banana. APPLE, LOVE.--See Solanum. APPLE, MAD.--See Solanum.