This tree derives its name from the fact of its bark peeling off naturally, and leaving the trunk naked.

"I will raise up for them a plant of renown."

"Flocks and herds were seen spreading through the undulating valleys. In one place we saw many of them gathered together under a shady tree, waiting till the

excessive heat of noon should be abated. At other times the shepherds gather the flocks beside a well, as we afterwards saw at Lebonah, where many hundreds were lying down around the well's mouth... The sight of these flocks reclining beneath the shady trees suggested the true meaning of another passage, 'I will raise up for them a plant of renown.' This plant is some noble shady tree, where the flock may find rest and shelter,— a wide-spreading covert, renowned for its coolness, under whose protecting branches they shall feed, and be 'no more consumed with hunger.'... When shall Israel come to this plant of renown?"-Mission to the Jews, p. 109.

"And they made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined

linen."

1 SAM. xiv. 2.

"And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah, under a pomegranate tree."

CANTICLES iv. 3, 13.

"Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate with in thy locks. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegra nates, with pleasant fruits."

viii. 2.

"I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate." [1 KINGS vii. 18, &c.]

This is one of the most beautiful of trees. Its shape is spiry, and it has thick tufted foliage of vigorous green, each growing shoot shaded into tenderer verdure and bordered with crimson, and adorned with the loveliest flowers.

There is scarcely a part of the pomegranate that is not useful or agreeable to man. The seeds are dried, and employed as a valued medicine; the fruit is delicious; and the rinds are preferred to almost any other substance for the tanning and preparing the finer kinds of leather, as the morocco, so much used for binding books, &c. The remarkable beauty of the pomegranate caused it to be copied as an ornament by the wise in heart, who built the ark of the covenant and the temple of Solomon.-See Scripture Herbal.

"The pomegranates were in full bloom,-the scarlet flowers shining brilliantly from among their deep green leaves."-Mission to the Jews, p. 122.

POPLAR.

GENESIS XXX. 37.

"Jacob took him rods of green poplar."

HOSEA iv. 13.

"They...burn incense...under... poplars."

The poplar abounds in Syria and Palestine. The constant rustling of their delicate leaves is very pleasant during the intense heats of summer, and the walks about Damascus are bordered with poplar trees, affording a delightful shade. The timber of this tree is useful for household utensils, and the dry leaves are eaten in winter by sheep. A gum that flows from the bark is considered a good remedy for headache, and the young buds are also used in medicine. In Greece, the poplar held a sacred character, and Israel is reproved for sacrificing under its shadow to heathen gods.

QUINCE.

PROVERBS XXV. 11; CANTICLES ii. 3, 5,-vii. 8,-viii. 5. See Citron.

It is thought by some naturalists that the quince, and not the citron, is intended in these passages, in which the Hebrew word, though rendered apple in our version, is Tappuach, quince. Before the Israelites entered the promised land three places were named after it,-Tappuah, quince; En-Tappuah, the fountain, or spring-head of the quince; and Beth-Tappuah, the well of the quince.

The quince of the East far surpasses the harsh quince of our orchards. Of those found in Arabia Felix, a traveller writes that they were not rough like our's, but rather to be compared with apples. The quince is not only valued as a fruit, but medicines are prepared from it. See Scripture Herbal.

REEDS, RUSHES, FLAGS, &c.

EXOD. ii. 3.

"And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink."

1 KINGS xiv. 15.

"The Lord shall smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water."

2 KINGS Xviii. 21.

"Thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go through his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharoah king of Egypt unto all that trust on him."

JOB Viii. 11.

"Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water.”

ISAI. ix. 14.

"Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day, (i. e., all things living on land and in water.)"

xviii. 1, 2.

"Woe to the land...that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters."

xix. 6,
7.

They shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper-reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more."

XXXV. 7.

"In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass, with reeds and rushes."