Hebrews `eshel (Genesis 21:33; 1 Samuel 22:6; 31:13, in the R.V.; but in A.V., "grove, " "tree"); Arab. asal. Seven species of this tree are found in Palestine. It is a "very graceful tree, with long feathery branches and tufts closely clad with the minutest of leaves, and surmounted in spring with spikes of beautiful pink blosoms, which seem to envelop the whole tree in one gauzy sheet of colour" (Tristram's Nat. Hist.).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

(n.) Any shrub or tree of the genus Tamarix, the species of which are European and Asiatic. They have minute scalelike leaves, and small flowers in spikes. An Arabian species (T. mannifera) is the source of one kind of manna.