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art: the first and best is the opobalsam, expressed from the green berry, the second is from the ripe nut or berry; and the last is obtained by bruising and boiling the young wood. See Scripture Herbal, pp. 31-37.

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"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither."

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PSALM XXXVii. 35.

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree.'

The green bay is not very common in Judæa, though it is found in the ancient gardens of Tyre and Sidon. But the rose bay, or oleander, grows everywhere; and lovely and luxuriant it is; whether by the banks of Jordan, or the lake of Tiberias, or in some quiet valley by the side of a stream. Robinson mentions it as being abundant in the neighbourhood of Petra, blooming in the valleys, and " forming with its myriads of large red blossoms a striking contrast to the desert rocks around."

Burckhardt speaks of a rivulet running in a deep valley through a wood of oleanders, "which form a canopy over the rivulet impenetrable to the meridian sun. The red flowers of these trees, reflected in the river, gave it the appearance of a bed of roses, and presented a singular contrast to the whitish grey rocks which border the wood on either side. The water is almost warm, and has a disagreeable taste, occasioned probably by the quantity of flowers that fall into it."ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. ii. p. 509.-BURCKHARDT'S Syria, p. 369.

Seeing that the oleander is so constantly found by the waters of Palestine, there is some interest in the question proposed by Hasselquist, who, in one of his letters to Linnæus, writes :-"I request you will please to ask Dr. Celsius whether the writers on Scripture plants have ever thought what vegetable David refers to in Psalm i. 3, under the name of the tree of the righteous. David attributes qualities to the tree which plainly shew that he has in view some particular vegetable. And these qualities are such that they cannot be attributed to any but the oleander which grows in abundance in this country."

BDELLIUM.

GENESIS ii. 12.

"There is bdellium."

NUMBERS xi. 7.

"The colour... (of the manna was) as the colour of bdellium."

This gum, the produce of India, is clear, and of a whitish colour-and was offered, steeped in wine, to the gods of Rome.

BOX.

ISAIAH xli. 19.

"I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together."

lx. 13.

"The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the firtree, the pine-tree, and the box-tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary."

In the Apocryphal book of Esdras a very important purpose to which box-wood was anciently applied is pointed out. He was told to prepare many box-trees, and to take five scribes to write upon them. Esdras was a captive in Babylon, and, therefore, no doubt used the writing materials common in that country. These, it appears, were tablets of box, probably waxed over to receive the impression of the iron pen. Such tablets were in use in Greece and Rome, among writers and painters and were employed for private letters, as well

as for public dispatches. It is thought that the word ivory in Ezekiel xxvii. 6, ought to be translated boxwood; as it seems more likely that the rowers' benches should have been made of box-wood than of ivory. The

prophet says, expressly, that the materials of those benches were brought from the isles of Chittim; the chief of which island (supposed to be Sardinia) abounds in box-trees.

Among the ancients, such furniture as admitted of carving, coffers for jewels, &c., were made of the root of the tree, while the writing-tables were made of the plain, smooth, yellowish wood of the trunk. Amongst ourselves, box has become of great importance, as the best material for blocks for the wood-engraver. It is sufficiently tough, fine in the grain, and little apt to split. It is a native of England, but has almost disappeared, as such, before the spade and the plough. A dwarf kind is much used for garden bordering.-See Scripture Herbal, pp. 57-60.

CALAMUS, OR SWEET CANE.

EXODUS XXX. 23.

"Take... of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels."

ISAIAH xliii. 24.

"Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money." [Canticles iv. 14; Ezek. xxvii. 19.]

The sweet cane was reckoned among the principal spices and perfumes of which the precious oil for the service of the tabernacle was composed. The plant mentioned under this name in Scripture, has been, like the spikenard, much sought after; and, if found at all,

it is only of very late days.

There are numerous aromatic canes and grasses in India, one of the most remarkable of which is the Koosa grass, of which so much use is made in the hot season. The roots are woven very neatly into screens or mats, which are sprinkled with water, and suspended before the open doors or windows, so that the breeze in passing through them is cooled, while a slight but very agreeable fragrance is diffused around. The roots of the Koosa grass have the property of repelling insects, and are therefore laid among clothes of every kind. There are many other grasses in India from which fragrant and medicinal oils are extracted, and in one of them Dr. Royle thinks he has discovered the Sweet Cane of Scripture. It is

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