Hall Tree: OMBU, om'boo, TREE, also known as BELLASOMBRE TREE, UMBRA TREE and POKE TREE, a South American shade tree (Phytolacca dioica), widely cultivated as a shade tree in Spain, Malta, and other countries on the Mediterranean Sea and in India. The tree attains a height of 25 to 35 feet, is extraordinarily wide at the base of the bole, sometimes reaching a diameter of 12 to 15 feet, and has a wide-spreading top with extremely dense foliage. The leaves are large, and the whitish flowers are borne on spikes, the fruit being similar in appearance and in medicinal qualities to that of the plant or shrub variety of pokeweed.
In 1627, hall tree was made bishop of Exeter, but creasing tension between King and Parliament, .nglican and Puritan, left little room for the in-icnce of moderate men like hall tree. Archbishop jud and his party suspected hall tree of too much inpathy with the Puritans; on the other hand, e opponents of the Anglican establishment disrated him, as they did all the bishops. |
