or VETCHES, a kind of tare. There are two words in Hebrew which our translators have rendered _fitches_, קצח and כסמת: the first occurs only in Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27, and must be the name of some kind of seed; but the interpreters differ much in explaining it. Jerom, Maimonides, R. David Kimchi, and the rabbins understand it of the _gith_; and rabbi Obdias de Bartenora expressly says that its barbarous or vulgar name is ניילי. The _gith_ was called by the Greeks μελάνθιον, and by the Latins _nigella_; and is thus described by Ballester: “It is a plant commonly met with in gardens, and grows to a cubit in height, and sometimes more, according to the richness of the soil. The leaves are small like those of fennel, the flower blue, which disappearing, the ovary shows itself on the top, like that of a poppy, furnished with little horns, oblong, divided by membranes into several partitions, or cells, in which are enclosed seeds of a very black colour, not unlike those of the leek, but of a very fragrant smell.” And Ausonius observes, that its pungency is equal to that of pepper:-- _Est inter fruges morsu piper æquiparens git._ Pliny says it is of use in bakehouses, _pistrinis_, and that it affords a grateful seasoning to the bread. The Jewish rabbins also mention the seeds among condiments, and mixed with bread. For this purpose it was probably used in the time of Isaiah; since the inhabitants of those countries, to this day, have a variety of rusks and biscuits, most of which are strewed on the top with the seeds of sesamum, coriander, and wild garden saffron. The other word rendered _fitches_ in our translation of Ezek. iv, 9, is כסמת; but in Exod. ix, 32, and Isaiah xxviii, 25, “rye.” In the latter place the Septuagint has ξέα, and in ...