The Facts and Fancies of a Biblical Garden
by: Drayton Hastie

According to Genesis, on the first two days God created the earth and its waters, plants on the third day, and then his garden at Eden. Though we are told that he grew "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food," the exact identities of some of those plants have, over time, become uncertain. Further complicating is that neither those who originally recorded the Bible nor those who subsequently translated it into their native tongues were necessarily interested in horticulture. It has been largely over the past century that horticulturists, who happened also to be Biblical students, began exploring the subject.

Question still exists as to variety, species, and even genera of some plants of the scriptures. Thus, some matters may forever be argued, such as whether Eve's "apple" was in fact an apricot; whether the "Rose of Sharon" was neither a rose nor our present Rose of Sharon; whether the "lilies of the field" were narcissus, hyacinths, crocus, anemones, lilies, or a combination; whether the tree from which Judas hung himself was actually the Judas tree, etc.

Nonetheless, we do now know items of interest, such as that manna came from drippings of the tamerisk tree, that the "locusts" eaten by John the Baptist were not insects, but pods from the carob tree, that the "bitter herbs" which sustained the Israelites during their 40-year outing were pretty much what we see at our salad bars today, that frankincense and myrrh were horticultural perfumes, that the Holy Land of those days, prior to centuries of man's depredations, was horticulturally a Garden of Eden, and that a great majority of all Biblical plants are now positively identified.

In Magnolia Plantation's Biblical Garden, climate and availability permitting, effort has been made to identify these as exactly as possible based on best research. As one explores the plants and flowers of the New Testament which surround the cross or which are located in the beds of the cross representing the 12 disciples, or as one scans those of the Old Testament area about the Star of David and within its 12 sections commemorating the tribes of Israel, it should be borne in mind that the purpose was to create an educational garden - not an Eden.

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