plant thee a grove of any trees, near unto the altar of the Lord thy God,' Deut. xvi. 21. From their proneness to imitate the customs of the surrounding nations, however, the Jewish people became guilty of sacrificing in high places and in consecrated groves: and one of their kings carried his impiety so far as to plant one of these groves at Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxi. 7.

Landseer has attempted to show, that the word rendered 'groves' in our translation of the Scriptures, means rather a kind of orrery or armillary machine used for purposes of divination, which he supposes to have been about the height of a man.

It is certain that the word translated 'groves' cannot always be interpreted to mean a grove of trees, since we read of setting up groves under every green tree' (2 Kings, xvii, 8, &c.); nor can it always be strictly taken as an image, for we also read that the people made them molten images, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven,' and used divination, ver. 16, 17. (See also Judges vi. 25, 26, 28, 30). Hence Selden supposes, that the term was used for the images worshipped in the groves, especially Astarte or Venus. Others have conjectured that as by Baal was meant the sun, so by ashre or' groves' was meant the moon, worshipped as the 'queen of heaven,'

SECTION I.

FRUIT TREES.

THE APPLE, OR CITRON TREE.

THE apple tree, is, in the several passages where it is spoken of, represented as one of the most noble trees in the garden of nature, emitting a delightful fragrance, and bearing fruit of a most delicious kind. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste,' Cant. ii. 3. 'I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof; now also thy breast shall be as the clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples,' chap. vii. 8. In the following passage it is classed with those trees which are peculiarly beautiful and valuable: The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men,' Joel i. 12.

There are six places in which the word occurs; and from them we learn that it was thought the noblest of the trees of the wood, and that its fruit was very sweet or pleasant (Cant. ii. 3,) of the color of gold (Prov. xxv. I1,) extremely fragrant (Cant. viii. 8,) and proper for those to smell who were ready to faint, chap. ii. 5. The fifth and sixth passages (Cant. vii. 5, Joel, i. 12,) contain nothing particular, but the description the other four give, perfectly answers to the citron-tree and its fruit.

To the manner of serving up apples in his court, Solomon seems to refer, when he says, A word fitly spoken is like apples [citrons] of gold in pictures of silver,' Prov. xxv. 11: whether as Maimonides supposes, wrought with open work like baskets, or curiously chased, it is not material to determine.

THE ALMOND TREE.

THE almond tree is too well known to need a description here. It flowers in the month of January, or February, and by March brings its fruits to maturity. To this there is a reference in the vi

sion of Jeremiah (ch. i. 11, 12); 'The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen, for I am hastening or watching over my word to fulfil it.' In this passage there is one of those paranomasias so frequent in the Hebrew Scriptures, but which it is impossible to preserve in any translation.

It is probable, as Parkhurst has suggested, that the chiefs of the tribes bore each an almond rod, as emblematical of their vigilance (Numb. xvii. 6-8); the dead almond rod of Aaron, which afterwards blossomed and bore fruit, was a very proper emblem of Him who first rose from the dead.

Solomon has beautifully described the approach and appearance of old age, according to the generality of interpreters, in the expression, The almond tree shall flourish' (Eccl. xii. 5)-its white blossoms appearing so soon, and presenting themselves on the bare branches; but it must be admitted that there is considerable force in what Mr. Harmer has urged against this interpretation. Gray hairs, he remarks, are quite consistent with vigorous and unailing old age; besides which, it is very untoward to suppose that the appearance of these blossoms, which marks out the finishing of the winter, the approach of the spring, the pleasantest time of the year, and exhibits the tree in all its beauty, should be used to represent the approach of the winter of human life, followed by death, and a disappearing from the land of the living. Surely the one, he continues, can hardly be intended to be descriptive of the other: and, if not, some other explanation must be sought for; though this one seems very early to have obtained, if we may judge from the translation of the Septuagint.

We have already seen that the Hebrew word signifies, literally, 'a watcher,' and that it is used metaphorically of the almond tree. Admitting this, Mr. Harmer suggests that the clause may naturally be interpreted, by explaining it of the frequency of the attendance of physicians, who appear oftenest at court, and flourish most there when the prince is in a very declining state, drawing near to death. See 2 Chronicles xvi. 21. The functions of a physician, with regard to the body, and of a watchman with respect to a palace, are not unlike: they appear from time to time at court; but much more observable as well as frequently, in seasons of apprehension and danger, than at other times.

THE CHESNUT TREE.

It is difficult to conceive the reasons which induced the English translators to render the Hebrew aumuz' chesnut tree.' It occurs only in Gen. xxx. 37, and Ezek. xxxi. 8: in both places the Vulgate understand the 'plane tree,' as do the LXX. in the former passage, but in the latter they have the 'fir.' The majority of interpreters concur with the Latin version, which is certainly very suitable to the sense of the passage in the prophet, which requires a tree possessing extensive branches, and producing a considerable shade; qualities for which the plane tree has ever been celebrated.

THE fig tree is very common in Palestine and the East, and it flourishes with the greatest luxuriance in those barren and stony situations where little else will grow.

Figs are of two sorts, the 'boccore,' and the 'kermouse. The boccore, or early fig, is produced in June, though the kermouse, the fig properly so called, which is preserved, and made up into cakes, is rarely ripe. before August. There is also a long dark colored kermouse, that sometimes hangs upon the trees all the winter. For these figs generally hang a long time upon the tree before they drop off; whereas the boccores drop as soon as they are ripe, and, according to the beautiful allusion of the prophet Nahum, 'fall into the mouth of the eater, upon being shaken,' ch. iii. 12. Dr. Shaw, to whom we are indebted for this information, remarks, that these trees do not properly blossom, or send out flowers, as we render Hab. iii. 17. They may rather be said to shoot out their

fruit, which they do, like so many little buttons, with their flowers, small and imperfect as they are, inclosed within them.

When this intelligent traveller visited Palestine, in the latter end of March, the boccore was far from being in a state of maturity; for, in the scripture expression, 'the time of figs was not yet' (Mark xi. 13,) or not till the middle or latter end of June. The 'time' here mentioned, is supposed by some authors, to be the third year, in which the fruit of a particular kind of fig tree is said to come to perfection. But this species, if there be any such, needs to be further known and described, before any argument can be founded upon it. Dionysius Syrus, as he is translated by Dr. Loftus, is more to the purpose: 'it was not the time of figs,' he remarks, because it was the month Nisan, when trees yielded blossoms, and not fruit. It frequently happens in Barbary, however, and it need not be doubted in the warmer climate of Palestine, that, according to the quality of the preceding season, some of the more forward and vigorous trees will now and then yield a few ripe figs, six weeks or more before the full season. Something like this may be alluded to by the prophet Hosea, when he says he'saw their fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time' (ch. ix. 10;) and by Isaiah, who, speaking of the beauty of Samaria, and her rapid declension, says, she 'shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which, when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up,' ch. xxviii. 4.

When the boccore draws near to perfection, then the kermouse, the summer fig, or carica, begin to be formed, though they rarely ripen before August; at which time there appears a third crop, or the winter fig, as it may be called. This is usually of a much longer shape and darker complexion than the kermouse, hanging and ripening on the tree, even after the leaves are shed; and, provided the winter prove mild and temperate, is gathered as a delicious morsel in the spring. We learn from Pliny, that the fig tree was bifera, or bore two crops of figs; namely, the boccore, as we may imagine, and the kermouse; though what he relates afterwards, should intimate that there was also a winter crop.

It is well known, that the fruit of these prolific trees always precedes the leaves; and consequently, when our Saviour saw one of them in full vigor having leaves (Mark xi. 13), he might, according to the common course of nature, very justly look for fruit;' and haply find some boccores, if not some winter figs, likewise, upon it. But the difficulties connected with the narration of this transaction, will not allow of its dismissal in this summary manner. We say, in the narration, for we apprehend that the remark of Dr. Shaw is quite satisfactory as to the reasonableness of our Lord's conduct on the occasion, notwithstanding the multiplied objections which ignorance and irreligion have urged against it.

We now look at the construction of the passage, which has occasioned so much embarrassment to commentators, and has given rise to more discussion, perhaps, than any other narrative in the New