BOTNIM (ntn) occurs only in Gen. xliii. t 1, where Jacob, wishing to conciliate the ruler of Egypt, desires his sons on their return to take of the best fruits in the land in their vessels, and carry down the man a present,' and along with other articles mentions nuts and almonds.' Here the word rendered nuts is botnim. Among the various translations of this term Celsius enumerates walnuts, hazel-nuts, pine-nuts, peaches, dates, the fruit of the terebinth-tree, and even almonds ; but there is little doubt that pistachio-nuts is the true rendering. From the context it is evident that the articles intended for presents were the produce of Syria, or easily procurable there. Hence they were probably less common in Egypt, and therefore suitable for such a purpose.
The Hebrew word botnim, reduced from its plural form, is very similar to the Arabic batanz, which we find in Arabian authors, as Rhases, Serapion, and Avicenna. It is sometimes written baton, boton, botin, and albotin. The name is applied specially to the terebinth-tree, or Pistacia terebinthus of botanists, the repkto4303 or repOzvOos of the Greeks. This is the turpentine yielding pistacia, a native of Syria and of the Greek Archipelago, which has already been de scribed in the article ALAH. The tree, as there mentioned, is remarkable for yielding one of the finest kinds of turpentine, that usually called of Chio or of Cyprus, which, employed as a medicine in ancient times, still holds its place in the British pharmacopoeias. From being produced only in a few places and from being highly valued, it is usually adulterated with the common kinds of turpentine. In many places, however, where the tree grows well, it does not yield turpentine, which may account for its not being noticed as a product of Palestine ; otherwise we might have inferred that the turpentine of this species of pistacia formed one of the articles sent as a present into Egypt. This seems to have been the view of the translators of the Sept., who render botnim by repptvOos. The name batam is applied by the Arabs both to the turpentine and to the tree. It appears, however, to be sometimes used generically, as in some Arabic works it is applied to a tree of which the kernels of the seeds are described as being of a green colour. This is the distinguishing charac teristic of another species of pistacia, the P. vera of botanists, of which the fruit is well known to the Arabs by the name of fistnk, which seems to be derived from the Persian pisteh. This, no doubt, gave origin to the Greek said by Dioscorides to be produced in Syria, and to be like pine nuts. Besides these edible kernels,
the pistacia-trce is described in the Arabic works on Materia Medica as yielding another product somewhat similar to the turpentine of the battam, but which is called 'aluk-al-anbat, a resin of the anbat, as if this were another name for the pistacia tree. This brings it much nearer the botnim of Scripture. The Botna of the Talmud is considered by annotators to be the pistacia (Celsius, Hierobot. i. p. 26). Bochart for this and other reasons considered botnim to be the kernels of the pistacia tree.
The pistachio-nut-tree is well known, extending as it does from Syria to Affghanistan. From the .iatter country the seeds are carried as an article of commerce to India, where they are eaten in their uncooked state, added to sweetmeats, or as a dessert fried with pepper and salt, being much relished by Europeans for the delicacy of their flavour. The pistacia-tree is most common in the northern, that is, the cooler parts of Syria, but it is also found wild in Palestine in some very re markable positions, as Mount Tabor, and the sum mit of Mount Attarous (Nebo?) (Physical Palestine, p. 323). This tree is said to have been intro duced from Syria into Italy by Lucius Vitellius in the reign of Tiberius. It delights in a dry soil, and rises to the height of zo, and sometimes 3o feet. As it belongs to the same genus as the terebinth tree, so like it the male and female flowers grow on separate trees. It is therefore necessary for the fecundation of the seed that a male tree be planted among the female ones. It is probably owing to the flowers of the latter not being fecundated, that the trees occasionally bear oblong fruit-like but hollow bodies, which are sometimes described as galls, sometimes as nuts, of little value. The ripe seeds are inclosed in a woody but brittle whitish coloured shell, and within it is the seed-covering, which is thin, membranous, and of a reddish colour. The kernel is throughout of a green colour, abounds in oil, and has a sweetish agreeable taste. Pista chio-nuts are much eaten by the natives of the countries where they are grown, and, as we have seen, they form articles of commerce from Affghan istan to India—a hot country like Egypt. They are also exported from Syria to Europe in consider able quantities. They might therefore have well formed a part of the present intended for Joseph, notwithstanding the high position which be occu pied in Egypt.—J. F. R.