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.