All which notwithstanding, since the same Plant may grow naturally and spontaneously in several Countries, and either from inward or outward causes be lost in one Region, while it continueth and subsisteth in another, the Balsam Tree might possibly be a native of _Judæa_ as well as of _Arabia_; which because _de facto_ it cannot be clearly made out, the ancient expressions of Scripture become doubtfull in this point. But since this Plant hath not, for a long time, grown in _Judæa_, and still plentifully prospers in _Arabia_, that which now comes in pretious parcels to us, and still is called the Balsam of _Judæa_, may now surrender its name, and more properly be called the Balsam of _Arabia_. [Sidenote: _Barley Flax, &c. in_ Exod. 9. 31.] 35. _And the Flax and the Barley was smitten; for the Barley was in the Ear, and the Flax was bolled, but the Wheat and the Rye was not smitten, for they were not grown up._[222] How the Barley and the Flax should be smitten in the plague of Hail in _Ægypt_, and the Wheat and Rye escape, because they were not yet grown up, may seem strange unto English observers, who call Barley Summer Corn sown so many months after Wheat, and, beside _hordeum Polystichon_, or big Barley, sowe not Barley in the Winter, to anticipate the growth of Wheat. [222] Linum folliculos germinavit, σπερματίζον _Septuag._ Serotina, _Lat._ ὄψιμα, _Gr._ And the same may also seem a preposterous expression unto all who do not consider the various Agriculture, and different Husbandry of Nations, and such as was practised in _Ægypt_, and fairly proved to have been also used in _Judæa_, wherein their Barley Harvest was before that of Wheat; as is confirmable from that expression in _Ruth_, that she _came into Bethlehem at the beginning of Barley Harvest_, and staid unto the end of Wheat Harvest; from the death of _Manasses_ the Father of _Judith_, Emphatically expressed to have happened in the Wheat Harvest, and more advanced heat of the Sun; and from the custom of the Jews, to offer the Barley Sheaf of the first fruits in _March_, and a Cake of Wheat Flower but at the end of _Pentecost_. Consonant unto the practice of the Ægyptians, who (as _Theophrastus_ delivereth) sowed their Barley early in reference to their first Fruits; and also the common rural practice, recorded by the same Authour, _Maturè seritur Triticum, Hordeum, quod etiam maturius seritur; Wheat and Barley are sowed early, but Barley earlier of the two_.