THE BRAMBLE.

THE word occurs in Judges ix. 14, 15, and in Psa. lviii. 10. In the latter passage it is rendered thorn; in the former, bramble. It is armed with thorns; its branches are supple and pliant; and its leaf is of a deep green, like that of the ivy. It is certain that such a tree is required as may well denote a tyrant; one who, instead of affording shade and shelter to such as seek his protection, strips them of their property, as a bramble bush does the sheep which come near it, or lie down under its shadow. There is a passage in Holland's translation of Plutarch admirably illustrative of this subject: Whereupon is thought that he [Demosthenes] forsook his colors and fled; now as he made haste away, there chanced a bramble to take hold of his cassock behinde, whereat he turned back and said unto the bramble, 'Save my life, and take my ransome."> Folio 567.

NETTLES.

THERE are two different words rendered nettles' in the English Bible: They occur in (Prov. xxiv. 31, Isa. xxxiv. 13. Hos. ix. 6) and in (Job xxx. 7, Prov. xxiv. 31, Zeph. ii. 9.).

ONIONS, AND SIMILAR PLANTS.

ONIONS.

'WHOEVER has tasted onions in Egypt,' says Hasselquist, 'must allow, that none can be had better, in any part of the world; here they are sweet, in other countries they are nauseous and strong; here they are soft whereas in the North, and other parts, they are hard, and the coats so compact, that they are hard of digestion. Hence they cannot, in any place, be eaten with less prejudice, and more satisfaction, than in Egypt. They eat them roasted, cut into four pieces, with some bits of roasted meat, and with this dish they are so delighted, that I have heard them wish they might enjoy it in Paradise. They likewise make a soup of them, cutting the onions in small pieces; this is one of the best dishes I ever ate.'

As further illustrative of the passage above referred to, we may observe, that among the vegetables used by the Egyptians for food, melons, cucumbers, and onions, are the most common. Concerning the last, he says, 'they are sweeter than in any other place in the world; and in the streets of Cairo, they sell them ready prepared for eating.

GARLICK.

THIS word occurs only in one passage of scripture (Numb. xi. 5), where it is joined with leeks and onions, and would, therefore, seem to be some plant of a similar kind.

LEEKS.

THE Hebrew word which is translated, 'leek,' in Numb. xi. 5, is, as we have already noticed, a general term for herbage or grass, and has been so translated in several passages of our Bible. Referring to 1 Kings xviii. 5, Harmer says, It can hardly be allowed to mean leeks, because it is there used to express the food of horses and mules, but may very well stand for such vegetables as grew promiscuously with grass, which the succory or endive does, and this, being of a very cool nature, and much used in Egypt, he takes to be the herbage intended by the original text.

SECTION V.

FLAX.

THIS is a well known vegetable, upon which the industry of mankind has been exercised with the greatest success and utility. On passing a field of it, one is struck with astonishment, when he considers that this apparently insignificant plant may, by the labor and ingenuity of man, be made to assume an entirely new form and appearance, and to contribute to pleasure and health, by furnishing us with agreeable and ornamental apparel.

From time immemorial, Egypt was celebrated for the production or manufacture of flax. Wrought into inner garments, it constituted the principal dress of the inhabitants, and the priests never put on any other kind of clothing. The fine linen of Egypt is celebrated in all ancient authors, and its superior excellence is mentioned in the sacred Scripture. The manufacure of flax is still carried on in that country.

In Deut. xxvii. 11, is a prohibition of wearing a garment of flax and wool. The original word translated linen and woollen,' (Lev. xix. 19), is difficult of explanation. We are inclined to believe that it must rather refer to a garment of divers sorts, than to what we call linsey woolsey;' to one made up of patch-work, differently colored and arranged, perhaps, for pride and show, like the coat of many colors made by Jacob for his son Joseph, Gen. xxxvii. 3.

In predicting the gentleness, caution, and tenderness with which the Messiah should manage his administration, Isaiah (ch. xlii. 3) happily illustrates it by a proverb: 'The bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench.' He shall not break even a bruised reed, which snaps asunder immediately when pressed with any considerable weight; nor shall he extinguish

even the smoking flax, or the wick of a lamp, which, when it first begins to kindle, is put out by every little motion. With such kind and condescending regards to the weakest of his people, and to the first openings and symptoms of a hopeful character, shall he proceed till he send forth judgment unto victory, or till he make his righteous cause victorious. This place is quoted in Matt. xii. 20, where, by an easy metonomy, the material for the thing made, flax, is used for the wick of a lamp or taper; and that, by a synecdoche for the lamp or taper itself, which, when near going out, yields more smoke than light. 'He will not extinguish, or put out, the dying lamp.'

In Jer. xiii. 1, a linen girdle is mentioned; and in Ezek. xl. 3, a measuring line of flax.

Our version having more than once mentioned ‘the fine linen of Egypt,' numbers of people have been ready to imagine, that their linen manufactures were of the most delicate kind; whereas, in truth, they were but coarse. This is proved by examining that in which their embalmed bodies are found wrapped up. So Hasselquist observes: 'The ancients have said much of the fine linen of Egypt; and many of our learned men imagine that it was so fine and precious, that we have even lost the art, and cannot make it so good. They have been induced to think so by the commendations which the Greeks have lavished on the Egyptian linen. They had good reason for doing it, for they had no flax themselves, and were unacquainted with the art of weaving: but were we to compare a piece of Holland linen with the linen in which the mummies were laid, and which is of the oldest and best manufacture of Egypt, we shall find that the fine linen of Egypt is very coarse in comparison with what is now made. The Egyptian linen was fine, and sought after by kings and princes, when Egypt was the only country that cultivated flax and knew how to use it.'

Our translators have been unfortunate in this article, says Dr. Harris, in supposing that one of the words might signify silk, and forgetting cloth made of cotton. When Joseph was arrayed in Egypt as viceroy of that country, they represent him as clothed in vestures of fine linen' (Gen. xli. 42), but being dubious of the meaning of the word there, they render it 'silk' in the margin. This was very unhappy: for they not only translate the word linen' in a multitude of other places; but, certainly, whatever the word signifies, it cannot mean silk, which was not used, we have reason to think, in those parts of the world, till long after the time of Joseph. They have gone farther, for they have made the word 'silk,' the textual translation of the Hebrew term, in Prov. xxxi. 22, which verse describes the happy effects of female Jewish industry. 'She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is pink and purple.' They suppose, then, that the Jewish women, of not the highest rank in the time of Solomon, were clothed with vestments made of a material so precious in former times, we are told, as to be sold for its weight in gold.

CHAPTER III.

TREES.

We now advance a step higher in our botanical researches, and proceed to a consideration of the dendrology of the sacred writings. The consecration of groves to the gods of Pagan antiquity is a circumstance with which every reader of ancient history must be familiar. The custom is so ancient, that it is thought to have been antecedent to the consecration of temples and altars. This, however, is very questionable, for the ashel of Abraham, rendered 'grove' in the English version of the Bible, being differently expressed from the consecrated groves spoken of in the Old Testament, is rather to be understood of a single tree; perhaps the oak, or the tamarisk. But be this as it may, it is certain that the use of sacred groves, for the celebration of mysteries, is of very high antiquity, and perhaps of all others the most universal. At first there were in these groves neither temple nor altar: they were simple retreats, to which there was no access for the profane, or such as were not devoted to the service of the gods. Afterwards temples were built in these retreats, and to preserve so ancient a custom, they took care, whenever they had it in their power, to plant groves round the temples and altars, which groves were not only consecrated to the gods in honor of whom the temples had been built, but were themselves a place of sanctuary or an asylum for criminals, who fled thither for refuge.

This very prevalent custom seems to have originated in the conception, that shade and solitude gave an air of mystery and devotion to religious services; and were adapted to inspire the worshippers with a solemn and superstitious dread of those divinities which they were taught to believe were present in such sacred places. 'If you find,' says Seneca, 'a grove thick set with ancient oaks, that have shot up to a vast height, the tallness of the wood, the retirement of the place, and the pleasantness of the shade, immediately make you think it to be the residence of some god.' The prophet also intimates this to have been the reason: "They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good,' Hos. iv. 13.

As these groves were the more immediate scenes of these impure rites which formed the leading feature of the systems of idollatrous worship, the Jewish legislator prohibited his people from planting trees around or near the altar of God: Thou shalt not