CYPRESS. The cypress is only once mentioned in our authorized version, and then as yielding wood adapted for carving :- "He... taketh a cypress; yea, he maketh a god and worshippeth it" (Is. xliv. 14, 15). Whether the cypress is really intended in this passage is uncertain, as the Hebrew word tirzah occurs nowhere else. It has been surmised that the cypress is elsewhere mentioned in the Bible under the Hebrew word translated "fir," in our version. One reason for coming to this conclusion is that Josephus (Antiquities, viii. 2, § 7) asserts that Solomon used

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cypress and cedar wood for the beams of the temple, and in accordance with this we should read in 1 Kings v. 8: :- "Hiram sent to Solomon saying, I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of cypress;" and so in other passages where "fir occurs. The notices of it refer to its value: "Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress (Is. lv. 13); its beauty:-"The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the cypress tree... to beautify the place of my sanctuary" (Is. Ix. 13); and its abundance on the sides of Lebanon :-"By the multitude of my chariots I came up... to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down... the choice cypresses thereof" (Is. xxxvii. 24). This latter notice creates some difficulty, inasmuch as the cypress is not found high up the sides of Lebanon, but rather in the low lands. Probably the Jews included the juniper under the term cypress. Besides its use for buildings, it was applied to the construction of musical instruments :-" David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all instruments of cypress wood" (2 Sam. vi. 5).

The cypress is known to us as an ornamental shrub, the name of which bespeaks its eastern origin; for cypress is nothing else than Cyprus, the well-known island near the coasts of Asia Minor and Syria. In its native country it grows to a greater height than with us. It is a graceful, but somewhat gloomy looking tree, and from the latter feature it has become the favourite tree in eastern cemeteries.

EBONY.-This much-prized wood is mentioned among the articles of commerce for which the mart of Tyre was famous (Ezek. xxvii. 15). It was brought thither by the Dedanites, who lived on the shores of the Persian Gulf, and who doubtless procured it from India and Ceylon. It is the product of the Diospyrus melanoxylon, a tree of considerable size, which grows in Ceylon and on the coasts of southern Hindostan. The heart of the tree alone is valuable, the outside wood being soft and liable to decay. The tree produces an edible fruit, represented in the above cut, and to this its botanical name is due. The great value set on ebony is incidentally proved by the statement of Herodotus (iii. 97) that the Ethiopians brought as tribute to the Persian emperors two hundred logs of ebony. Though we do not procure the wood from Ethiopia, there seems to be no doubt that some species of dios

pyrus grow there, as they are found in most tropical and sub-tropical regions.

ELM. The elm is mentioned in our authorized version of Hos. iv. 13:-"They sacrifice. . . under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good." The Hebrew term in this passage is elsewhere rendered "oak," and really refers to the Terebinth tree. We, therefore, refer our readers to "oak." FIR.-The fir" is frequently mentioned in the Bible, but we have already stated that the tree intended is probably the "cypress," or the juniper.

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CHAPTER XI.

FOREST-TREES AND SHRUBS-continued.

JUNIPER-OAK-OLIVE, WILD-PINE-POPLAR-SHITTAH

TEREBINTH-THYINE-TREE-VINE, WILD-WILLOW.

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in our

JUNIPER. The notices of the "juniper authorised version are incorrect. There can be no doubt that the plant described under the Hebrew name is the same which now passes under a similar name among the Arabians, viz.: rethem, a kind of broom (Spartium monospermum), which puts forth a beautifully white blossom. It was this plant which furnished the prophet Elijah with shelter in the wilderness :-" He came and sat down under a rethem, and he requested that he might die" (1 Kings xix. 4): it also supplied fuel, as noticed in Ps. cxx. 4 "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of rethem :" and in extreme cases it was even used as an article of food, whence Job (xxx. 4) speaks of the wretched ones who cut up mallows by the bushes, and rethem roots for their meat."

Modern travellers frequently notice this plant Burckhardt writes:- "We here found several Bedouins occupied in collecting brushwood, which they burn into charcoal for the Cairo market: they prefer for this purpose the thick roots of the shrub Rethem, Genista ratam of Forskal, which grows here in abundance."-Syria, p. 483.

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Among the many plants we noticed were the retem, a species of the broom-plant, with small whitish variegated blossoms, growing in the water-courses and val