MWtARY 

 •v W YO*K 

 BOTANICAL 



PREFACE 



This work owes its origin to the wants experienced by 

 a translator of the Bible. 



Ever since the day that man was sent to dress the 

 garden of Eden, and to give " names to all cattle, and to 

 the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field," he 

 has in every age, and in every clime, been a lover of na- 

 ture. It has been remarked of the Hebrews especially, 

 * that "they make such frequent recurrence for metapho- 

 rical expressions to natural objects, and particularly to 

 plants and trees, that their poetry may almost be termed 

 the botanical poetry." The Hebrew and Greek Testa- 

 ments contain between seven and eight hundred names 

 of natural productions, found in the countries where the 

 books were written ; and Michaelis says " there are 

 upwards of two hundred and fifty botanical terms." 

 These names, and terms enter into many thousands of 

 verses, the proper rendering of which defends upon 

 a correct knowledge of the things designated. 

 And how much more lucid and interesting will appear the 

 Book of God, if these terms be rightly translated ! 



Throughout the inspired writings of the Ancient Scrip- 

 tures, and in all the teachings of the Apostles, we find 

 constant allusion to the works of nature. And our Sa- 

 viour in his parables and similitudes continually draws 

 from the natural scenes of earth which his almighty 

 hand had fashioned, that " the invisible things of Him 

 from the creation of the world might be clearly seen, 

 being understood by the things that are made." 

 But had his hearers been unacquainted with the parti- 

 J2 cular names and properties of the plants or animals to 

 cr> which he referred, they could never have felt as they did, 

 the overwhelming power of his arguments and illustrations. 

 And yet, by some translators, a verv considerable propor 

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