bore fruit, a miracle which confirmed the priesthood for ever in the family of Aaron and his sons.

Hence it is that on the days of great festivals, when the ancient Jews would have presented palm branches in the Temple, the modern English Jews, who cannot obtain a palm branch, carry a bough of the flowering Almond to the synagogue.

Perhaps they may be influenced in their choice by the circumstance, that, in the great famine that prevailed in the East in the days of Joseph, the Almond was among the fruits of the land of Canaan that did not fail. For Israel, when pressed by his sons to allow them to go a second time to Egypt to buy corn, desires them to carry a present of the best fruits of the land, "A little balm, and a little honey, and myrrh, and nuts, and Almonds."

So, as the Almond failed not to their patriarchs in the days of dearth, it cometh to their hand in this day of worse and more bitter privation, as a token that God forgetteth not his people in their distress, nor the children of Israel, though scattered in a foreign land, though their home is the prey of the spoiler, and their temple is become an high place for the heathen.

THIS plant itself is not mentioned in Scripture; and all the texts in which Aloes are named, relate to the

*For some observations on these texts look forward to LIGN ALOES.

gummy substance procured from the Aloe, either by making incisions and carefully collecting the juice that exudes, or by bruising the fleshy leaves. In either case, the liquor is set by in an airy place in the shade, and carefully skimmed for many days successively; when it is sufficiently thick, it is laid out in the sun to dry, and then packed in skins or boxes.

The taste is intensely bitter, but the smell very agreeable. It was one of the drugs used by the ancients, particularly the Egyptians, for embalming the dead.

The strong sweet odour, and the bitterness combined, kept off destructive reptiles and insects; and myrrh, having the same qualities, was employed, together with Aloes, for the same purpose.

When Christ was taken down hastily from the cross, that his body might not remain exposed on the Sabbath day, Nicodemus brought about a hundred pounds' weight of myrrh and Aloes, which were wrapped with the body in the linen cloth wherein he was laid.

When Aloes are mentioned simply as perfumes, it is probable that lign aloes is meant.

The modern medicinal Aloes are collected from

various species of Aloe; some growing in Asia, where, however, they are not native; some in the West Indies, where they have been introduced for the purposes of commerce; but the Socotrine Aloe is the best. It is a beautiful plant, growing to the height of five or six feet, with vivid green leaves, and a flower of scarlet, white, and green. It owes its name to the Island of Socotra, lying at the mouth of the Red Sea; and probably the method of collecting and managing the juice, which gives the Socotrine Aloes the superiority over others, is a relic of the practice of the ancient Egyptian priests and embalmers, who made so much use of it, and possibly might have their agents on the island, near as it is to Egypt, for the purpose of buying it up.

Some species of Aloe, more correctly Agave, which are in common speech called Aloes, though improperly, grow in desert sandy places, where no water is. They are, nevertheless, the sign of refreshment to the traveller; for their long thick leaves are each gathered round the stem, forming a cup, which collects the rain and dew in such large quantities, that the thirsty may drink, and the weary rest and drink again, of this desert fountain.

The Aloe seems to love to adorn ruins. Who has been in Rome, and has not seen how the palace of the Cæsars is crumbling piecemeal into nothing? yet the Aloe (really Agave) that crowns the ruin is fresh and brilliant as on the day of creation, shrouding, with its ever-springing youth, the perishable work of man.

It is said the finest of such Aloes cover the ruined walls of Famagosta, and hide the bones, it may be, too, the blood-stains, where Turk and Christian struggled for the dominion of the civilised world. That conflict has long ceased, and the banners of the crescent and the cross are flying together in many a region in friendship.

The real Aloe is one of the plants to some species of which a superstitious value has been attached. The Mahommedans of Egypt and Palestine reverence the Mitre Aloe, which grows in plenty in the neighbourhood of Mecca; and every man who has performed his pilgrimage would fain hang a Mitre Aloe over his door as a proof that he had done so, even without the prevalent notion that such Aloes bring good luck; and travellers, a century ago, often found them suspended across a street, to render it fortunate.

The Agave, commonly called American Aloe, is a