Under the law, it was commonly used in purifications as a sprinkler. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they were commanded to take a bunch of hyssop, to dip it in the blood of the paschal lamb, and sprinkle with it the lintel and the two side posts of the door. Sometimes they added a little scarlet wool. It was also used in sprinkling the leper. The hyssop is extremely well adapted to such purposes. It literally grows in bunches, putting out abundance of suckers from a single root. It grows about a foot and a half high; and at distances on both sides of its stock, it pushes out longish leaves, and carries a blossom on the top of the stem, of an azure colour and like an ear of corn. The Rose. Considerable diversity of sentiment prevails among the learned, in relation to the true meaning of the original term, habetzeleth, in our version translated rose. The Seventy and Jerome render it "the flower of the fields;" the Chaldee translates it rose, in which it is followed by the greater part of western interpreters. From its intimate connection with the lily of the valleys, indisputably an uncultivated flower, it is natural to conclude, that the inspired writer alluded to the wild rose. In the opinion of other natural historians, the habetzeleth is a bulbous-rooted plant; because the name may be derived from Habab he loved, and Batzel a bulb or onion; and they suppose with great probability, that the sacred writers mean the asphodel, whose flowers resemble those of the lily. It is a very beautiful and odoriferous flower; and highly praised by two of the greatest masters of Grecian song. Hesiod says it grows commonly in the woods; and Homer calls the Elysian fields, "meads filled with as phodel words which agree with the sentiment of the Hebrew here, if we take Sharon (as seems perfectly proper) for the common field. "I am the asphodel of the meads or woods, the lily of the valleys, or the uncultivated fields." Roses are the delight of the orientals on all occasions. The rose of Sharon, or the rose of Damascus in particular, is still, as in the days of Solomon, an universal favourite, probably because it produces the most delicate of all perfumes, the ottar of roses. It is equally celebrated for the richness of its fragrance and the beauty of its flowers; and is even regarded as the sovereign of the garden. Hafez the Persian poet says, "When the rose comes into the garden, the violet prostrates itself before it with its face to the ground." The odes of Anacreon sufficiently prove how greatly the rose was esteemed among the ancient Greeks. Horace praises it with almost equal ardour. It occupied a conspicuous place in every chaplet; it was a principal ornament in every festive meeting, and at every solemn sacrifice. "Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa And again, "Huc vina et unguenta, et nimium breves B. i, Car. 5. B. ii, Car. 3. "Hither order your slaves to bring the wine, and the perfumes, and the grateful flowers of the too transitory rose. It was right to consecrate a plant so lovely to the service of religion. Solomon has accordingly chosen it to represent the matchless excellencies of his divine Redeemer : "I am the rose of Sharon;"h and the prophet Isaiah, to 5 Forbes's Orient. Mem. vol. ii, p. 30, and vol. iii, p. 139. give us some faint conception of the wonderful change which the gospel produced in the state of the world after the ascension of Christ, "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." The Lily. This flower is next in dignity to the rose, and seems, from several allusions in the Scriptures, to have been greatly valued among the Jews. The snowy whiteness of its petals, its lofty stature, reaching sometimes to four feet and a half, the delicacy of its form, and the uncommon elegance of all its parts, cannot but strike with admiration every attentive observer. The lily of the field sometimes appears with unrivalled magnificence. The remark is justified by the following statement of Mr. Salt: "At a few miles from Adowa, we discovered a new and beautiful species of Amaryllis, which bore from ten to twelve spikes of bloom on each stem, as large as those of the Bella-donna,' springing from one common receptacle. The general colour of the corolla was white, and every petal was marked with a single streak of bright purple down the middle. The flower was sweet scented, and its smell, though much more powerful, resembled that of the lily of the valley. This superb plant excited the admiration of the whole party; and it brought immediately to my recollection, the beautiful comparison used on a particular occasion, by our Saviour: yet, I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." Sir J. Smith is of opinion that it is the amaryllis luta which "in autumn over-runs the fields of the Levant, whose golden liliaceous flowers afford one of the most brilliant and gorgeous objects in nature."i i Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 419. J Evangelical Magazine for December 1821, p. 510. The lily occupied a conspicuous place among the ornaments of the temple and its furniture. The brim of the molten sea, was wrought with flowers of lilies; the chapiters that were upon the tops of the pillars, were of lily work, and the top of the pillars was ornamented in the same manner. The Saviour is represented in the Song, as feeding among the lilies: and the graces of the church are like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.k This plant is the ww, Shushan of the Hebrews, from the term ww, Schesch, which signifies six, because it has that number of leaves. Souciet however affirms, that the lily mentioned in Scripture by the name Shushan, is the crown imperial; this is the Persian lily, the tusaï of the Persians, the royal lily or lilium basileium of the Greeks. In reality, it appears from the Canticles, that the lily spoken of by Solomon, was red, and distilled a certain liquor, Cant. v. 13. There are crown imperials with yellow flowers, but those with red are the most common; they are always bent downwards, and disposed in the manner of a crown at the extremity of the stem, which has a tuft of leaves at the top. At the bottom of each leaf of this flower, is a certain watery humour, forming, as it were, a very white pearl, which gradually distils very clear and pure drops of water. This water is probably what the spouse in the Song calls myrrh: "His lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh."1 The Reed or Cane. The reed grows in immense numbers on the banks and in the streams of the Nile. Extensive woods of the canes Phragmit and Calama magrostes, which rise to the height of twelve yards, cover the marshes in the neighbourhood of Suez. The stems are conveyed all over Egypt and * Song ii, 16, and vii, 2. Taylor's Calmet, vol. i, p. 484. 1 Arabia, and are employed by the orientals in constructing the flat terraces of their habitations. Calmet thinks it probable, that this extensive region of canes gave name to the Red sea, which in those times entirely inundated the marshes on its borders. Jam Suph is a sea that produces canes; and as the Arabs denote two sorts of canes by the general name buz, the surname being added afterwards, Moses, the sacred historian, following the same ancient denominations, did not attend to the specifical niceties of botanology. This same leader of the people, underwent the first dangers of his life in a cradle made of the reeds, donax or hagni." m This information induced Calmet to conclude, that in these reeds which covered the banks of the Nile, we have what our translation renders the flags (suph), in which Moses was concealed in his trunk, or ark of bulrushes, goma. The remarkable height to which they grow, and their vast abundance, lead to the persuasion, that in some thick tuft of them, the future prophet of Israel was concealed. It appears also, from the interrogation of Job, that the goma cannot reach its full stature without an abundant supply of water: "Can the rush-goma, rather the tall strong cane or reed, grow up without water ?" This plant, therefore, being a tall reed, is, with great propriety, associated with the kanah, or cane: "In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass, with canes and reeds."n The sweet smelling reed grows in the deserts of Arabia. It is gathered near Jambo, a port town of Arabia Petrea, from whence it is brought into Egypt. Pliny says This plant was pro it is common to India and Syria. n Isaiah XXXV, 7. m Taylor's Calmet, vol. iv. 9 Nat. Hist. lib. xii, sec. 48. |