tainly purchased by the Israelites at the mouth of the Red Sea, where was the market for Indian goods; and at the same place they must have bought the myrrh, for that neither grew, nor grows any where else than in Saba or Azabo, East of Cape Gardefan, where were the ports for India, and whence it was dispersed over all the world.

THE CYPRESS TREE.

THIS tree is only mentioned in Isaiah xlv. 14, and critics are not agreed whether the Hebrew word does really denote the cypress. The cypress is a tall straight tree, which is cultivated with great difficulty. Its fruit is not edible; its leaves are bitter; and, according to Piiny, its very smell and shade are highly dangerous. Hence, the Romans considered it as a fatal tree, and used it at funerals and mournful ceremonies. The wood is always green, very heavy, of an aromatic smell, and is not subject to rot, or liable to be eaten by worms. The tree is distinguished into male and female: the branches of the male incline horizontally, those of the female are upright. Its fruit is round, olive-colored, and of the size of nuts, growing in separate places, and containing small angular seeds.

Bochart, Fuller, and other writers, have maintained, that the gopher-wood of which the ark was made (Genesis vi. 11) was cypress. Says Parkhurst, perhaps gopher may be a general name for such trees as abound with resinous, inflammable juices, as the cedar, cypress, fir-tree, pine, &c.

THE LIGN ALOE.

THE aloe tree is a native of India, and grows to the height of about eight or ten feet; having at its head large bunches of leaves, thick and indented, broad at the bottom, but narrowing towards the point, and about four feet in length. The blossom is red, intermixed with yellow, and double, similar to a pink from this blossom proceeds the fruit, round, like a large pea, white and red. But there is another description of tree, called the Syrian aloe, otherwise aspalatha, which is a little shrub covered with prickles; of the wood of which, perfumers (having taken off the bark) make use, to give a consistency to their perfumes, which otherwise would be too thin and liquid. Cassiodorus observes, that this is of a very sweet smell, and that in his time they burned it before the altars, instead of frankincense. It is probable that this is the shrub de

noted by the Hebrew word ahalim, which is applied to a sweet smelling wood [Prov. vii. 17; Psal. xlv. 9; Cant. iv. 14], which the agalloch or wood of aloes is not.

THE ROSE TREE.

FROM a passage in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, we learn that the rose was a favorite among the Jewish people, as it also is in more eastern countries; and further, that it was a noble tree: 'I was exalted like a palm tree in Engeddi, and as a rose-plant in Jericho,' ch. xxiv. 14. From this it is evident that the plant now called 'the rose of Jericho,' is a vegetable of a very different description.

The following passage from a celebrated traveller, describing the rose of Persia, will perhaps convey something like an accurate idea of the celebrated roses of Sharon and Jericho, prior to the desolating of those fruitful regions.

'On first entering this bower of fairy land, I was struck with the appearance of two rose trees; full fourteen feet high, laden with thousands of flowers, in every degree of expansion, and of a bloom and delicacy of scent that imbued the whole atmosphere with the most exquisite perfume; indeed, I believe that in no country of the world does the rose grow in such perfection as in Persia-in no country is it so cultivated and prized by the natives. Their gardens and courts are crowded with its plants, their rooms ornamented with vases filled with its gathered bunches, and every bath strewed with the fullb-lown flowers, plucked from the ever-replenished stems. Even the humblest individual, who pays a piece of copper money for a few whifs of a Kalioun, feels a double enjoyment when he finds it stuck with a bud from his dear native tree; but in this delicious garden of Negauvistan, the eye and the smell were not the only senses regaled by the presence of the rose: the ear was enchanted by the wild and beautiful notes of the multitude of nightingales, whose warblings seem to increase in melody and softness with the unfolding of their favorite flowers: verifying the song of their poet, who says, "When the charms of the bower are passed away, the fond tale of the nightingale no longer animates the scene.":

It was right, says Paxton, to consecrate a plant so lovely to the service of religion. Solomon has accordingly chosen it to represent the matchless excellences of his divine Redeemer: 'I am the rose of Sharon' [Cant. ii.]; and the prophet Isaiah, to give us some faint conception of the wonderful change which the gospel produced in the state of the world, after the ascension of Christ, says, 'The wilderness shall rejoice and flourish: like the rose shall it beautifully flourish.'-Chap. xxxv.

SECTION III.

WOODY TREES.

THE OAK.

THE oak being so universally known, renders a particular description of it unnecessary; but as it is thought that our translators have sometimes confounded it with the terebinth, which is not so common, we shall notice the leading features in the character of this tree. Mariti says, the terebinth is an evergreen of moderate size, but having the top and branches large in proportion to the body, the leaves resemble those of the olive, but are of a green color, intermixed with red and purple; the twigs that bear them always terminate in a single leaf the flowers are like those of the vine, and grow in bunches like them; they are purple, the fruit is of the size of juniper-berries, hanging in clusters, and each containing a single seed of the size of a grape-stone; they are of a ruddy purple, and remarkably juicy. Another fruit, or rather excrescence, is found on this tree, scattered amongst the leaves, of the size of a chesnut, of a purple color, variegated with green and white. The people of Cyprus say that it is produced by the puncture of a fly in opening them they appear full of worms; the wood is hard and fibrous; and a resin or gum distils from the trunk. The tree abounds near Jerusalem, and in Cyprus.

The terebinth under which Abraham entertained the angels (Gen. xviii. 1, &c.) is famous in antiquity. Josephus says, that six furlongs from Hebron they showed a very large terebinth, which the inhabitants of the country believed to be as old as the world itself. Eusebius assures us that in his time the terebinth of Abraham was still to be seen (!), and was held in great veneration both by Christians and Gentiles, as well from respect to Abraham, as to the heavenly guests he entertained under it. Jerom says, this terebinth was two miles from Hebron. Sozomen places it fifteen stadia from this city. These variations induce a doubt whether the writers speak of the same tree. The terebinth of Jacob, where he buried the gods, brought by his people from Mesopotamia (Gen. xxxv. 4), was behind the city of Shechem, and far from that at which Abraham dwelt, near Hebron; yet they have been very absurdly confounded together. It is thought to have been under the same terebinth that Joshua renewed the covenant with the Lord; and that Abimelech, son of Gideon, was proclaimed king by the Shechemites.

The prophetic benediction pronounced upon Naphtali (Gen. xlix.

1

21), is rendered by Dr. Geddes and some other critics, Naphtali is a spreading terebinth producing beautiful branches.' The reasons adduced against this interpretation may be seen in pages 110, 111,

ante.

We have already noticed the religious veneration in which some kind of trees were held, by the heathen nations of antiquity: among these th eoak stood in a pre-eminent rank. 'Ye shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have planted,' says Isaiah, to the idolatrous Israelites, chap. i. 29. In Gaul and Britain we find that the highest religious regard was paid to the same tree and its mistletoe, under the directions of the Druids; that is, the oak-prophets or priests. Few are ignorant that the mistletoe, or missaldine, is indeed a very extraordinary plant, not to be cultivated in the earth, but always growing upon some other tree, as upon the oak, apple, &c. The Druids says Pliny, hold nothing more sacred than the mistletoe, and the tree on which it is produced, provided it be the oak. They make choice of groves of oak on their own account, nor do they perform any of their sacred rites without the leaves of those trees, so that one may suppose that they are for this reason called by a Greek etymology, Druids. And whatever mistletoe grows on the oak, they think it sent from Heaven, and as a sign of God himself having chosen that tree. This, however, is very rarely found, but when discovered is treated with great ceremony. They call it by a name which in their language signifies the curer of all ills; and having duly prepared their feasts and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to it two white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time tied. The priest, dressed in a white robe, ascends the tree, and with a golden pruning-hook cuts off the mistletoe, which is received in a white sagum or sheet. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God would bless his own gift to those on whom he has bestowed it.

Is it possible for a Christian to read this account, says Parkhurst, from whom we have transcribed the passages, without thinking of Him who was the desire of all nations: of the man whose name was the BRANCH, who had indeed no father on earth, but came down from heaven; was given to heal all our ills, and after being cut off through the divine counsel, was wrapped in fine linen, and laid in the sepulchre, for our sakes! I cannot forbear adding, he continues, that the mistletoe was a sacred emblem to other Celtic nations, as for instance, to the ancient inhabitants of Italy.

THE FIR TREE.

THIS tree is a beautiful evergreen (Hos. xiv. 8), whose lofty height and dense foliage afforded a habitation for the birds of heaven (Psa. civ. 17), and a convenient shelter to the weary traveller, 2 Kings xix. 23; Isa. lv. 13; Ezek. xxxi. 8. Its wood was anciently used in finishing the interior of sumptuous buildings (1 Kings vi. 15, 34; 2 Chron. iii. 5; Cant. i. 17), and also in the construction of ships, Ezek. xxvii. 5. In 2 Sam. vi. 5, it is said, that 'David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood,' &c. Mr. Taylor inclines to think that the word beroshim, in this passage, may express some instrument of music, rather than the wood of which such instrument was made; but, with his usual candor, he gives the following passage from Dr. Burney's history of music: This species of wood, so soft in its nature and sonorous in its effects, seems to have been preferred by the ancients, as well as the moderns, to every other kind, for the construction of musical instruments, particularly the bellies of them, on which their tone chiefly depends. Those of the harp, lute, guitar, harpsichord, and violin, in present use are constantly made of fir

wood.'

THE POPLAR.

THIS tree, which is mentioned only in Gen. xxx. 37, and Hos. iv. 13, is thought to obtain its name, lebneh, from the whiteness of its leaves, bark, and wood. In both passages the Vulgate interprets it 'poplar;' in the latter, the LXX. and Aquila render ti white; i. e. poplar.

THE WILLOW.

THE Willow is a common tree, growing in marshy places (Lev. xxiii. 40; Ps. cxxxvii. 2; Isa. xliv. 4), and possessing a leaf like that of the olive. It is out of doubt, says Mr. Taylor, that the word orebim, signifies willows; all interpreters agree in it. The weeping willow is a native of the Levant. It runs to a considerable height, and no tree can be more graceful on the margin of a lake or stream. Its twigs are extensively used in the making of baskets.