PLAIN OF, a beautiful and spacious plain, extending from Cæsarea
to Joppa on the sea coast, and eastward to the mountains of Judea; and
is celebrated for its wines, its flowers, and its pastures. It still
preserves some portions of its natural beauty, and is adorned in the
spring with the white and red rose, the narcissus, the white and orange
lily, the carnation and other flowers; but for the rest of the year it
appears little better than a desert, with here and there a ruined
village, and some clumps of olive trees and sycamores. This name was
almost become a proverb, to express a place of extraordinary beauty and
fruitfulness, Isaiah xxxiii, 9; xxxv, 2. But there are three cantons of
Palestine known by the name of Sharon. The first, according to Eusebius
and St. Jerom, is a canton between Mount Tabor and the sea of Tiberias.
The second, a canton between the city of Cæsarea of Palestine and Joppa.
And the third a canton beyond Jordan, in the country of Basan, and in
the division of the tribe of Gad. Modern travellers give this name also
to the plain that lies between Ecdippe and Ptolemais.
to Joppa on the sea coast, and eastward to the mountains of Judea; and
is celebrated for its wines, its flowers, and its pastures. It still
preserves some portions of its natural beauty, and is adorned in the
spring with the white and red rose, the narcissus, the white and orange
lily, the carnation and other flowers; but for the rest of the year it
appears little better than a desert, with here and there a ruined
village, and some clumps of olive trees and sycamores. This name was
almost become a proverb, to express a place of extraordinary beauty and
fruitfulness, Isaiah xxxiii, 9; xxxv, 2. But there are three cantons of
Palestine known by the name of Sharon. The first, according to Eusebius
and St. Jerom, is a canton between Mount Tabor and the sea of Tiberias.
The second, a canton between the city of Cæsarea of Palestine and Joppa.
And the third a canton beyond Jordan, in the country of Basan, and in
the division of the tribe of Gad. Modern travellers give this name also
to the plain that lies between Ecdippe and Ptolemais.