the "habitation of the stork," and the rest of the country is chiefly well wooded with forests of evergreen oaks, which rival those of the Atlas Mountains. It was probably here that the balsam tree grew in early times, from which the much-prized balm of Gilead was procured. Now it is, however, sought in vain in the forests of oak, for it has hitherto baffled all the attempts of travellers to find it; it is probably quite extinct in that region.

West of the Jordan the character of the country is extremely various; the wide plains are brilliant in spring with scarlet, white, and purple anemones, and the marshes are decked with patches of purple orchids and yellow flags; whilst the hills are fragrant with thymes and lavenders, and verdant with evergreen shrubs, except in cultivated districts, where dark grey patches of olive groves give the usual Mediterranean prospect to the landscape.

Near the coast the towns are surrounded with luxuriant orange gardens, almost always either fragrant with flowers or laden with golden fruit. Occasionally the date palm waves its lofty plume of leaves above them, although palms are almost extinct in Palestine, except at Caiffa and Ramleh, where they are abundant. The wild date is unknown, however, now in the country, except in occasional clumps in the wadies near the Dead Sea, where it still occurs, but never growing even there to any height.

The fig and the sycamore fig, the St. John's bean tree, the pomegranate, and the almond, are, next to the olive and the orange, the most conspicuous and common trees in the Holy Land, occurring near villages and towns throughout the country; and hedges of prickly pear, a kind of cactus, give quite a character to almost every Eastern village; for although this plant has been but recently introduced, and was originally from Central America, it is so entirely naturalized and so abundant around the Mediterranean, that it is difficult to conceive that it is a stranger to the soil.

On the banks of the Jordan, in the upper part of its course, luxuriant willows fringe the stream, whilst dense thickets of tamarisk, buckthorn, Spina Christi thorn, and plane trees shut out the view for miles, and shelter a tangle of wild roses, brambles, and vines, once more growing wild as if they had never been cultivated by man, and as if their own native country were by the banks of the sacred stream, which may be the case, as, like the wheat and barley, no man knows from whence the vine came "to gladden the heart of man."

The tributary streams of the Jordan and the shores of the Sea of

Galilee are decked with rosy oleanders, which rival, when in full flower, any show of rhododendrons and azaleas; whilst a hundred wild flowers, tulips, lilies, fritillaries, and ranunculuses, peep out from amongst the herbage, or spangle the grey rocks on the hillsides.

One of the most curious and remarkable plants of the Jordan valley is the papyrus, the plant from which the ancients prepared their paper; for although this interesting rush is quite extinct on the Nile, it still waves its plumes of narrow leaves over the waters of Merom and on the marshes of Capernaum. The papyrus is the only really tropical plant found in the upper part of the course of the Jordan; on the other hand, however, near Jericho the vegetation of the deep, hot valley of the Dead Sea assumes quite a tropical character, and rare Nubian forms and plants replace those of a more decidedly European cast, vast thickets of bamboo-like reeds fringe the water, and graceful fronds of maidenhair fern, nearly two feet long, hang from the rocks.

Still further south the arid plains support the same thorny, scanty vegetation as the red sides of Sinai; and the shittim-wood tree, a red-barked acacia, thorny and stunted, stands like a solitary sentinel in the parched desert.

Such are the extremes of the flora of Palestine, varying from the moss-like primrose, growing under the edge of the snow on the tops of Hermon and Lebanon, to the thorny caper in the desert, possibly the hyssop of Scripture; from the noble cedar to the stunted, thorny, almost deformed acacia, grand, however, from its very loneliness in the Syrian wilderness.-B. T. LOWNE, M.R.C.S.

Deuteronomy xxxii. 15.-"JESHURUN WAXED FAT, AND KICKED ;

THEN HE FORSOOK GOD WHICH MADE HIM, AND LIGHTLY ESTERMED
THE ROCK OF HIS SALVATION."

1601. Corrupting Influence of Prosperity.-A curious instance of a change of instinct is mentioned by Darwin. The bees carried to Barbadoes and the Western Islands ceased to lay up honey after the first year. They found the weather so fine, and the materials for honey so plentiful, that they became exceedingly profligate, and ate up their capital, worked no more, and amused themselves by flying about the sugar-houses and stinging the negroes.

2 Peter i. 16.-"WE HAVE NOT FOLLOWED CUNNINGLY DEVISED FABLES."

1602. The Pentateuch-its Genuineness.-The attempts which have been recently made to revive the doubts raised by a certain school of infidel writers two centuries ago, respecting the genuineness and authenticity of the Pentateuch, render it necessary that all Biblical students should be acquainted with the arguments by which its canonical authority is sustained. The best epitome of opinions on the subject which we have met with is by the Rev. Dr. Angus, in his admirable work, "The Bible Handbook," published by the Religious Tract Society, and we purpose in this and two subsequent articles presenting it to our readers in extenso:

"All complete copies of Holy Scripture begin with the Pentateuch. It was called by the Jews, 'the law;' or, more fully, the five-fifths of the law;' or simply, the fifths, a single book being called a fifth.' The several books take their names in Hebrew from the first word or words: the English names are taken from the Greek version, and indicate, in part, the subjects of which they treat. Pentateuch means, in Alexandrian Greek, the five volumes,' a name first used, as was probably the division into five books, by Alexandrian critics.

"That Moses was the author of the Pentateuch is the testimony of all tradition, both Jewish and heathen; and this testimony is sustained by the record itself. The book is quoted, moreover, by nearly all the sacred writers as his work, and is appealed to as genuine and authentic by our Lord and His apostles. The Old Testament quotations begin with Joshua, B.c. 1451, and extend over more than a thousand years, B.C. 430. Indeed, the coincidences between the Pentateuch and the later books are so numerous and exact, that the sense of the law might have been gathered, if the law itself had perished, from other parts of the Bible, every allusion in the later books having also its corresponding passage in the Pentateuch.

"The testimony of profane history is, of course, much later than Scripture. Mahomet (A.D. 569) maintained that Moses was inspired, and the Jewish law divine. Julian the Apostate (331) acknowledged that persons instructed of God once lived amongst the Israelites, and maintained both the genuineness and the authenticity of these books. Porphyry (233) admits their genuineness, and contends for the truth of Sanconiathon's accounts, from their accordance with the Mosaic history. Nicolaus of Damascus, an

eminent orator, and Strabo, both contemporaries of Augustus, ascribe the Pentateuch to Moses, as do Tacitus, Juvenal, and Longinus (A.D. 273).

"Internal evidence corroborates this view. (1) The books were evidently written by a Hebrew, speaking the language and cherishing the sentiments of his nation. (2) They were written by a Hebrew acquainted with Egypt and Arabia, their customs and learning. But Egyptian learning was carefully concealed from foreigners (Her., ii., c. 3, 100, 101, 164, 168). The priests alone, and the royal family, who were reckoned as priests, had access to it. To this class, therefore, the writer must have belonged. (3) There is, moreover, an exact correspondence between the narrative and the institutions, showing that both had one author. The laws are not given in the form of statutes, but are mixed with narrative, and are inserted as the exigencies requiring them arose. They are often briefly sketched, and afterwards repeated at greater length, with such modifications as were demanded by altered circumstances. (4) Noless remarkable is the agreement between the style of the different books and the circumstances of Moses. In the earlier narrative of Exodus and Numbers the style is broken and abrupt. In Deuteronomy it is continuous and parental. The history of the antediluvians is brief and simple; of the Jews full and explicit; and the whole exhibits the unity of design which bespeaks a single author. "The first doubt expressed on this question in England was by Thomas Hobbes, ▲.D. 1650, at least three thousand years after the first publication of the Pentateuch. Nor were doubts expressed by any known writer earlier than the thirteenth century."

Genesis iii. 15.-" AND I WILL PUT ENMITY BETWEEN THEE AND THE WOMAN, AND BETWEEN THY SEED AND HER SEED; IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD, AND THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL.

1603. Bruising the Heel.-In "Oriental Illustrations" the Rev. J. Roberts quotes various parallel passages in the history of Jacob, Job, and David, with a view of showing that attacking or injuring a person in the "heel" included the idea of treachery, of craft, and deceit. Thus," he says, was the serpent to injure the seed of The heel was the part to be wounded, which conveys

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the woman.

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the idea of being FOLLOWED for that purpose. The serpent affected to be the friend of the woman, but most perfidiously betrayed her.

He went behind her for that purpose; and when she did not suspect his design, he bruised her heel, and that of her seed throughout all generations. But in addition to these remarkable passages in the sacred Scriptures, we have the corresponding testimony of similar phraseology existing in the East at this day; for the heel is the part which is said to be wounded when a treacherous person, under the guise of friendship, has injured another. The man who has thus perfidiously conducted himself is called a kuthekal vettukurraven; that is, 'a heel-cutter;' which reminds us of the Russian proverb, ' He fawned on me, and then bit my heel.'* He also who has displaced some one from a lucrative post receives the same designation; and of him who has thus circumvented another in some office or emolument it is frequently said, 'Ah! I will yet cut his heel; that is, I will by some stratagem betray him, or have him discharged. But it is worthy of observation that this infamous epithet is given only to that man who has shown himself to be a false friend."

This view does not militate against what is generally regarded as the point of the passage, viz., that the tempter should bruise the seed of the woman in the weaker part, the "heel," while he should be bruised or crushed in the vital part, the" head."

Numbers xxxii. 23.-"BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT." 1604. Sin Discovered.-The Dog of Montargis.-In our annals of golden deeds there is no passing by the dog of Montargis, who, under Charles VI. of France, vainly defended his master, Aubri de Montdidier, when set upon by his mortal foe Macaire; then lay day and night on the forest grave where Macaire hoped his crime was hidden, only going to the house of his master's chief friend in Paris for his daily meal, until at length he was followed, the ground searched, the murder discovered, and the corpse freshly buried. Afterwards the dog's furious attacks upon Macaire were deemed an accusation, and the matter was put to the proof by the ordeal of combat in the Isle de Notre Dame. The dog had a tub into which he might retire, the man a club and a shield. The combat was so lengthy that Macaire, no doubt from the force of conscience, was so worn out that he fainted away, and on coming to himself owned the deed.-Book of Golden Deeds.

Pinkerton's "Russian Proverbs."