This word only occurs in the above verse, and is apparently the Greek name of some sweetscented plant; what that plant was we have now no means of ascertaining. Theophrastus mentions. it with cinnamon and cassia, thus indicating its Indian origin; he says it is sweet-scented. Dioscorides says that aspalathus is used for thickening ointment. Pliny says it grows in Cyprus, that it is a white, thorny shrub, the size of a moderate tree; he also speaks of it as growing in Spain, and being employed there as an ingredient in perfumes and ointments. Gerard speaks of aspalathus, and calls it Lignum Rhodium. This is by modern botanists considered to be the wood of Convolvulus Scoparius and C. floridus, two small, erect, branching, shrubby species, with small silky leaves and white and pink flowers.

Their wood is sweet-scented, and yields an oil called oil of Rhodium. Both are natives of the Canary Islands. It is probable that some allied species, native of the south of Europe, and possessing the same qualities, may be accepted as the aspalathus of Pliny and Gerard; while the Indian aspalathus of Theophrastus is considered to be Myrica sapida, a shrub or small tree, native of Nepaul, and allied to the sweet gale, Myrica Gale, common in boggy land in this country, and known as "bog myrtle."

Linnæus has adopted Aspalathus as the name

CAMPHIRE (Heb., côpher; Greek, kupros).

"My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.”—Cant. i., 14. "Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard." -Cant. iv., 13; 1014 B.C.

The word camphire is considered to be derived from the Latin caphura, which comes from the Arabic káfúr, in turn supposed to come from the Sanscrit karpura, signifying white, and is presumed to be the origin of the name of the well-known medicinal drug called camphor. This is the produce of Camphora officinarum, a large tree of the Laurel family, native of China, Formosa, and Japan. It is, however, very questionable whether Chinese camphor was known in Western Asia in the time of Solomon; be that as it may, it has nothing to do with the Hebrew côpher, the name of the plant bearing the cluster of camphire as our translation has it that grew in Solomon's vineyards at Engedi.

The Greek word kupros, rendered cypress in marginal Bibles, is considered to be the camphire of the text. This is now ascertained to be the plant called Lawsonia alba, a shrub attaining a height of 10 to 12 feet, the young branches being four-sided, with opposite, elliptical, lanceolate leaves, like those of the privet,

and bearing panicles of small sweet-scented white flowers. When old it becomes a spiny bush, hence the mistake of Linnæus in making two species of the same plant in different stages, and calling the one L. inermis and the other L. spinosa. It belongs to the family Lythraceœ, which is represented in this country by that beautiful plant Lythrum Salicaria, the purple loosestripe of our river banks, and the pretty flowering greenhouse shrub Lagerströmia indica.

Lawsonia is widely dispersed, being common in India, many parts of Western Asia, Egypt, and North Africa.

Its flowers are odoriferous, and its leaves are made into a paste, which has from remote ages been valued as a cosmetic, as is evidenced by Egyptian mummies. This paste is used to impart a yellow colour to the finger and toe nails, the tips of the fingers, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet; this is considered by the fair sex among the Orientals to enhance their beauty. It is also used by the men for colouring their beards and for dyeing the manes and tails of their horses. As this custom was practised in Egypt during the sojourn of the Israelites in that country they must have become well acquainted with it, but no mention is made of it in the Levitical law. It is to be presumed that it was not esteemed or patronised by them, for in