Camphire

Song of Solomon 1:14; "My beloved is unto Me as a cluster of camphire" (Song of Solomon 4:13). The shrub Lawsonia. inermis of Linnaeus, or alba, a kind of privet, having bunches of scented, small, lilac and yellowish white flowers, the bark dark, the foliage light green. Hebrew kopher , from kaaphar to paint, because its dry leaves were and are still made to yield a red unguent for staining women's nails. Indeed the nails of female mummies show traces of staining. Compare Deuteronomy 21:12. The Arabs call it henna . Still women in the East place in their bosom its sweet bunches of flowers.