rabs of Palestine at this day apply a name (zowan)
which bears some resemblance to ([Greek: zizania]) the original word in
the Greek text.[11] It has long narrow leaves and an upright stalk, and
is indeed in all respects so like the wheat, that even an experienced
eye cannot distinguish the two plants until they are in ear: the
distinction then is manifest, and any one may observe it. The grains of
the darnel are not so heavy as the wheat, and not so compactly set upon
the stalk. They are poisonous, their specific effect both in man and in
beast being nausea and giddiness. The remark of Schubert in his "Natural
History," quoted by Stier, that "this is the only poisonous grass," is
deeply significant in relation to the spiritual meaning of the parable;
it suggests the reason why the Healer selected this plant as the symbol
of sin.

[11] "The Land and the Book," by Dr. Thomson. T. Nelson & Sons.

But another question meets us here, more obscure and difficult than
either the appearance or the characteristic effects of the darnel,--the
question whether it is originally a specifically different plant, or
only wheat degenerated. Some maintain that it is wheat which, by some
mysterious causes in the processes of nature, has fallen, as it were,
into a lower type. This view imparts additional fulness to the parable
in its spiritual application. So interpreted, the picture exhibits not
only the low estate of the sinful, but also the fact that they have
fallen from a higher. In such cases, however, there is some danger lest
the beauty and appropriateness of the conception should entice us to
receive it on insufficient evidence. The fact that some plants in
certain adverse circumstances tend to degenerate, and in certain
favourable circumstances to attain a higher type, is well known in
natural history; but it seems questionable whether these changes ever
take place to such an extent, and in such a uniform method, as must be
assumed if we take darnel for degenerated wheat. Agriculturists in
Palestine believe and declare, that, when the season is wet, the wheat
which they sow in certain fields in spring grows as zowan in harvest. It
is difficult for one who is accustomed to observe the uniformity of
nature in the reproduction of each species from its own seed, to believe
that transformations so great are accomplished at a single step. An
American writer, one of the latest authorities, and, in respect to his
abundant opportunities