"He...taketh the cypress...then shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof and warm himself...yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it...."

This is a beautiful though somewhat gloomy looking tree. It tapers into a spire, and is universally planted in Eastern burial-grounds. The heathen used to make their funeral piles of cypress-wood, probably imagining

that its taper head rising straight and high, pointed to the ascent of the departing spirit. The heathen writers mention that the oldest idol statues were made of cypress wood, which is remarkably heavy, and durable. How does this remind us of the prophet's beautiful rebuke to the idol-makers!

DOVE'S DUNG, OR STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

2 KINGS Vi. 25

"And there was a great famine in Samaria; and be hold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver."

This elegant little flower, of the lily tribe, is but once mentioned in Scripture. It is a native of England, and was commonly eaten in Italy and other southern countries. The bulbous root of this plant has in all times been used as an esculent vegetable, in Syria and the neighbouring countries. It was sometimes dried, pulverised, and mixed with bread flour; and it was also eaten both raw and roasted. Of the thirty-six known species, one bearing a yellow flower yielded the most agreeable food. The peasants of Italy often roasted the roots, and ate them like chesnuts; or lightly boiled them, and peeled and used them as salad, with oil, vinegar, and pepper. The plains and valleys about Samaria abound in this pretty flower; and the dearth of its roots, was a token of famine beyond endurance. There are

several pretty varieties of this plant in Spain and Portugal, but scarcely more agreeable to the sight than our own English star of Bethlehem.-See Scripture Herbal, pp. 129-133.

EBONY.

EZEKIEL XXVii. 15.

"They brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony."

This tree is large, shooting up to twenty feet before it branches. The branches are many, and stiff. The fruit is about the size of a small apple, yellow, and pulpy. The bark of the tree is used as medicine by the Hindoos. The fruit is dried, and eaten as a sweetmeat. Sometimes it is called the date-plum. The wood of the ebony is greatly prized. It is a fine black, though some kinds are green. The Ethiopians in old time presented the kings of Persia with two hundred logs of ebony every year. The tree is a native of Ceylon.

FIG-TREE.

1 SAM. XXV. 18.

"Then Abigail took...two hundred cakes of figs..." [figs cured, and then pressed together.]

1 KINGS iv. 25.

"And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."

2 KINGS XX. 7.

"And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs, and they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered."

xxxviii. 21.]

ISAIAH XXXiv. 4.

[ISAI.

"And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved,...and all their host shall fall down...as a falling fig from the fig-tree."

HABAKKUK iii. 17, 18.

"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom...yet I will rejoice in the Lord."

MATTHEW Xxi. 19.

"And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig-tree withered away."

xxiv. 32.

"Now learn a parable of the fig-tree: when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh..."

LUKE xiii. 6.

"A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard." [See whole parable.]