distinguish the different sorts of Willow. The Willow is by no means a conspicuous or characteristic plant in Palestine: though not rare, it is scattered, local, and unattractive.

But there is another plant which lines every wady from Dan to Beersheba, and which, beyond every other shrub in the country, must rivet the attention of the

most unobservant traveller-unequalled for the gorgeous beauty of its flowers, which shed a glowing sheet of pink over the fringe of every lake and water-course for several weeks in the early summer. This plant, the Oleander (Nerium oleander), undoubtedly indigenous, is not specially mentioned in Scripture. Yet it fringes the whole Upper Jordan, dipping its wavy crown of red into the spray in the rapids under Hermon, and is nurtured by the oozy marshes in the Lower Jordan, nearly as far

as Jericho. The immediate basin of the Dead Sea appears too hot for it; everywhere else it demands but moisture, and springs up by the water-courses. On the Arnon, on the Jabbok and the Yarmuk, it forms a continuous fringe. In many of the streams of Moab it forms a complete screen, which the sun's rays can never penetrate to evaporate the precious moisture. The wild boar lies safely ensconced under its impervious cover.

It is the same throughout all Gilead, where it sometimes attains the proportions of a forest tree, and where we have frequently encamped and rested under its shade. By one sinuous unbroken line of deep green and burning red, it marks the hidden course of the Yabes (Jabesh) and many another trans-Jordanic stream. On the west side, though less luxuriant, it is equally abundant. The traveller from Jerusalem to Jericho looks down into the terrific gorge of the Wady Kelt, and scans the dark-green fringe at the bottom. If he visited it in June instead of March he would recognise the bloom of the Oleander. It flourishes also on the Kishon, and in the Plains of Phoenicia and Sharon, in the gardens of Sidon, and in the valleys of Lebanon. By the other rivers of Syria, the Leontes and the Orontes, by the rivers of Damascus, on the moist flats which surround the waters of Merom,

"Or where Gennesaret's wave

Delights the flowers to lave

That o'er her western slopes breathe airs of balm-
All through the summer's night

Those blossoms red and bright

Spread their soft breasts, unheeding, to the breeze.

Christian Year

Dean Stanley has remarked how the difference of elevation may be noted by the time of the Oleander's flowering. It is almost over at Gennesaret before it is budding in the Upper Leontes and Lebanon.

The same author elsewhere observes that the Oleander is only to be found in the Valley of the Jordan (a mistake, as is shown by his own frequent allusions to it elsewhere), and that it may be the tree alluded to as planted by the rivers of water, which shall bring forth his fruit in due season,' whose leaf shall not wither,' and the rose plant in Jericho,' 'the rose growing by the brook of the field,' celebrated by the son of Sirach.

When we note its similarity in growth, situation, form, and leaf, to the Osier, I feel strongly convinced that it is rather with the Oleander than with any species of our Osier that we must identify the willow by the water-courses' of Holy Writ.

It is to be observed that the plant was associated both with the joyous and the sorrowful days of the children of Israel. When captives in Babylon, their grief was poured forth under the willows; and in contemplating God's purposes of mercy towards them, they are directed to the willows as emblems of their growth, and as recalling the willows of the brook under which they rejoiced in their feast days of old. The Oleander is now the exclusive material with which the summer booths in Galilee are constructed.

CHAPTER XIII.

PART II.-HERBS AND FLOWERS.

ANISE. Gr. "Avn@ov.-Mentioned only in Matt. xxiii. 23 : "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for

ANISE.

ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." St. Luke, in the parallel passage, inserts rue,' and omits anise and cummin,' but adds, and all manner of herbs' (ch. xi. 42). Anethum graveolens, or Dill, is an umbelliferous, inconspicuous plant, somewhat like the Caraway in appearance, and much

cultivated in the East for the sake of its seeds, which are used both in medicine and in cooking, as a carminative and for seasoning dishes. Dill has long been thus employed.

Ancient writers mention it as cultivated in Egypt; it grows in the Greek islands, and occurs at the present day in Palestine, both in gardens and wild, or at least uncultivated, in fields. The Talmud mentions that "The seeds, the leaves, and the stem of dill are, according to Rabbi Eliezer, subject to tithe." The Hebrew expression in the Talmud is identical with its modern Arabic name. Dill is derived from an old Norse word, to dill, i.e., to soothe. Hence the dilling or soothing herb. Some writers have supposed the Pimpinella anisum, now called Anise, to be the arn0ov of the New Testament. It is a plant of the same order as the Dill (umbelliferous), very like it in appearance, and its seed employed for the same purposes, but it is not so common a garden herb in Eastern countries.

BARLEY. Heb. scórah; Gr. кpion; Lat. hordeum.—Tho most universally cultivated cereal in the world, having a more northerly range than Wheat, as well as a more southerly. It is less impatient of drought, and will thrive in a much lighter soil. It arrives earlier at maturity, requiring less heat to ripen it, yet uninjured by a tropical sun. It will also yield much longer on the same land without any rotation of crops. There is consequently no part of Palestine where it is not the most ordinary grain.

It is usually sown about the same time as the Wheat; but there is an interval of about three weeks between the conclusion of Barley harvest, and the beginning of Wheat harvest. The seed-time depends upon the 'former' or winter rains. If those fall early, the ground is at once scratched and the grain cast in, sometimes as early as the first week in November. Very often the rains do not fall copiously enough to soften the soil until the beginning of December, and then the Barley is not sown till Christmas or even later. The lighter and drier soils are chosen for Barley, but in the low grounds they are frequently irrigated where the means exist for so doing. Very little labour is expended on the cultivation; after the wooden plough has broken it up, the seed is cast over it, and covered in by a rude brush-harrow.