CERATIA, CERATONIA, is the name of a tree of the family of Leguminous plants, of which the fruit used to be called Siliqua edzilis and Sill'. qua daleis. By the Greeks, as Galen and Paulus ./Egineta, the tree is called iceparia, Keparwvia, from the resemblance of its fruit to tcepas, a horn. The word Kepcirtov occurs in Luke xv. 16, where it has been translated husks in the A. V. : our Saviour, in the parable of the prodigal son, says that he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat ; and no man gave unto him.'- In the Arabic version of the N. T., the word Kharvob, often writ ten Kharnoob, is given as the synonym of Xeratia. According to Celsius, the modern Greeks have converted the Arabic name into and the Spaniards into Carrova and Algaroba. The Italians called the tree Caroba, the French Carroubier, and the English Carob-tree. Though here, little more than its name is known, the Carob-tree is extremely common in the South of Europe, in Syria, and in Egypt. The Arabs distinguish it by the name of Kharnoob shamee that is, the Syrian Carob. The ancients, as Theo phrastus and Pliny, likewise mention it as a native of Syria. Celsius states that no tree is more fre quently mentioned in the Talmud, where its fruit is stated to be given as food to cattle and swine : it is now given to horses, asses, and mules. During the Peninsular war the horses of the British cavalry were often fed on the beans of the Carob tree. Both Pliny (Hist. Nat. xv. 23) and Coln
mella (vii. g) mention that it was given as food to swine. By some it has been thought, but appa rently without reason, that it was upon the husks of this tree that John the Baptist fed in the wilder ness : from this idea, however, it is often called St. John's Bread, and Locust-tree.
The Carob-tree grows in the south of Europe and north of Africa, usually to a moderate size, but it sometimes becomes very large, with a trunk of great thickness, and affords an agreeable shade. The quantity of pods borne by each tree is very considerable, being often as much as Soo or goo pounds weight : they are flat, brownish-coloured, from 6 to 8 inches in length, of a sub-astringent taste when unripe, but, when come to maturity, they secrete, within the husks and round the seeds, a sweetish-tasted pulp. When on the tree, the pods have an unpleasant odour ; but, when dried upon hurdles, they become eatable, and are valued by poor people, and during famine in the countries where the tree is grown, especially in Spain and Egypt, and by the Arabs. They are given as food to cattle in modern, as we read they were in ancient, times ; but, at the best, can only be considered very poor fare.—J. F. R.