number of Apples fully ripe, and having a golden tinge upon their smooth and polished surface, placed in a basket of silver, woven like network, is indeed one of the most beautiful pictures we can look upon.

The Rabbins inform us that the first fruits were carried to the temple in silver baskets. This being so, the image becomes more appropriate; for "apples, with their golden hue and fragrant smell, carried in a bright receptacle of golden or silver metal, set off with exquisite workmanship, as an offering of gratitude to the great Giver of all good things, to be presented in His sanctuary, seem appropriately to represent sound speech, that comes recommended by its proper ornament and in the dress which suits the majesty of truth, especially when it sounds Jehovah's praise, promulgates His holy law, or expresses His most affecting attribute of mercy."

The prophet Joel describes very touchingly the condition of the land when visited by the Lord in anger: "the field is wasted, the land mourneth ;" and he adds the reason: "for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth," and among other reasons he says, "the apple-tree is withered;" and these he makes the ground of a powerful appeal to the people to "lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth," and urges them to "sanctify a fast, and to gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD their God, and to cry unto the LORD." The whole chapter well deserves a deep and serious consideration. It contains important truths, which we ought to lay to heart; for our own country has been visited, in very

nearly the same manner as Palestine was then, more than once in late years; and if we would escape the like visitations in future years, surely our only course is to remember the commandments of the LORD and walk in them, to observe them and to do them; for the fruits of the earth have failed; pestilence has stalked through the land; we have been smitten and scourged; we mourned for a time, and the rod has been removed. But who can look around upon the daily doings of this people, who can witness, or read of, the fearful profanation of the Lord's day without a terrible apprehension that the LORD will visit such a nation as this? Who can regard them without dread of His punishing us as a people for these things?

COCKLE.

Agrostemma; W. La nielle; Fr. Der naden; Ger. Koornolam; Dut, Agrostema; Port. Drema; Russ. Firletka; Pol.

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In Job xxxi. we find this flower named, and there only. Job solemnly protests his integrity in the discharge of several duties therein enumerated, and at verse 38 he says, If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain......let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." Several different plants have been suggested as being intended by the word "Cockle" here, and among them the hoary nightshade and the aconite; but as the Cockle is a very common plant in corn-fields, we see no reason why others, which rather thrive on the borders of fields, should be substituted for it. When Job was speaking of his own integrity, and expressing his readiness to suffer punishment in a manner corresponding to that in which he might have injured his neighbour, it is most natural that he should mention that weed which was commonest among the corn, which he desired might fail in proportion to the injury which he might have inflicted. The Cockle being common in the barley-field, and most difficult to be eradicated from it, we see at once how appropriate is the expres

sion "let cockle grow instead of barley," for as the former thrived, so would the latter be diminished in quantity.

The species of Cockle which we have introduced into our group was used by the early Greeks and Romans in weaving chaplets for the purpose of crowning guests at convivial feasts, on which account it received the specific name of Coronaria.

THE GREAT JONQUIL.

Narcissus; L. Narcisse; Fr. and Dan. Die narcisse; Ger. Narcis
It. and Sp. Narcizo; Port. Narsiss; Swed.

Narciso ;

"No gradual bloom is wanting, from the bud,
First-born of spring! to summer's murky tribes ;
Nor hyacinths of purest virgin white,

Low bent, and blushing inward, nor jonquils
Of potent fragrance, nor narcissus fair

As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still."

THOMSON.

; Dut.

IN the Song of Solomon ii. 1, and in Isaiah xxxv. 1, there occurs the word Chabazzeleth in the Hebrew Scriptures, which is rendered by the word Rose in the authorized English version. "I am the Rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley," and "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the Rose."

The substantial part of the Hebrew name shows that the word denotes a flower growing from a bulb. In the Septuagint version of the former passage, it is translated simply vos (flower); and this is followed in the Latin Vulgate, and by Luther. Celsius observes that some translators have rendered the word Rose, or flower, in Solomon's Song, and Lily in the passage from Isaiah. Hiller sought the Chabazzeleth among bulbous plants, alleging that the word is probably compounded of the two Hebrew words chabab and batzal, a bulb, or bulbous root of any plant.