ICIKAYON (ki-kay'On), (Heb. 117P, kee-kaw yone'), occurs only in Jonah iv, where it is several times mentioned, as in verses 6, 7,9, to.
(1) Gourd. It is translated gourd in our Au thorized Version, probably from the kol-o-kune' thay, KoXoKOpen of the Septuagint, often rendered cucurbita. In the margin of the English Bible, Palm Christ isgiven. In the Vulgatekikayon is translated hedera, Neither the gourd nor ivy is con sidered by modern writers to indicate the plant' intended. We are told, 'The Lord God prepared a gourd (kikayon), and made it to come over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head,' etc. (verse 6). 'But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered' (verse 7). And in verse to it is said of the gourd that it 'came up. in a night, and perished in a night.' Hence it ap pears that the growth of the kikoyon was miracu lous, but that if was probably a plant of the coun try, being named specifically ; also that it was capable of affording shade, and might be easily de stroyed.
(2) Palma Christi. The Hebrew name kika yon is so similar to the kiki of Dioscorides, that it was early thought to indicate the same plant.
Dioscorides (iv, 164, reol KIKEws) states that thc kiki, or croton, is called wild sesomum. It has also been called Pentadactylus and Palma Christi, from the palmate division of its leaves. Having ascertained that the kiki of the Greeks is what is now called Ricinus coniniunis, we shall find that its characters correspond with every thing that is required, except the rapidity of growth, which must' be granted was miraculous. From the erect habit, and the breadth of its foli age, this plant throws an ample shade, especially when young. From the softness and little sub stance of its stem, it may easily be destroyed by insects, which Rumphius describcs as somctimes being the case. It would then necessarily dry up rapidly. As if is well suited to the country, and to the purpose indicated in the text, and as its name kiki is so similar to kikayon, it is doubt less thc plant which the sacred pcnman had in view. (See GOURD; JONAH.) J. F. R.