SACRED AND CLASSICAL PLANTING. 



known throughout Africa. The most ancient Greek writer who describes this tree is 

 Theophrastus, who says it was grafted on the common apple to produce bh\ck citrons, and 

 on the mulberry, for the sake of getting the fruit of a reddish color. Such things are quite 

 impossible; all statements like these tend onl}"^ to Aveaken the testimony of this great na- 

 turalist in other matters, and show clearly how closely the earliest efforts in history are 

 allied to the works of the mythologists. This tree thrives remarkably well in Lower 

 Egypt; and in the Garden of Ileliopolis, where it shades the Temple of the Sun, it appears 

 in matchless beauty. It is questionable whether the citron was known to the ancient in- 

 habitants of Ilellas; for Antiphanes observes in his Boetian,that it had only been recently 

 introduced into Attica: — 



" A. 'Twould be absurd to speak of what's to eat, 



As if you thought of such things ; but, fair maid, 

 Take of these apples. 

 B. Oil I how beautiful I 



A. Tliey are, indeed, since hither they but lately 

 Have come from the great king. 



B. By I'hosphoros! 



I could have thought them from the Hesperian bowers. 

 Where th' apples are of gold. 



A. There are but three ! 



B. The beautiful is nowhere plentiful."' 



Viewed in connection with the present subject, the Vine forms a most important tree. 

 No effort of mine can add anything to the delight with which this well known plant is 

 looked upon b}' all nations. The classics seem to have written under its shade: their pa- 

 ges e.xhale the sweet odor of its fruit. It is freqncntl}^ mentioned in the Old and New 

 Testaments. It was known to the inhabitants of Judea, both in its wild and cultivated 

 forms, though the former, in all probability, was not, strictly speaking, a vine. It was 

 certainly not the Vltis Labrusca, or Fox Grape of Botanists. In the vales near Jordan, 

 not far distant from Jericho and the Dead Sea, is found growing in great abundance, the 

 vine of Sodom, which produces fruit as bitter as gall, and according to Bishop Lowth, as 

 deadly as the poison of a serpent. This deleterious grape is alluded to bj^ Moses in terms 

 fully bearing out this description: "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the 

 fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter, their wine is 

 the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." The tree, however, referred to so 

 often in the Bible and in Classic Song, is the grapevine, ( Vitis vinifera,) well known 

 throughout all the temperate zones of the Old World, as an exuberant climber, and pro- 

 ducing the noblest and most delicious of beverages. Thus, in contradistinction to the spu- 

 rious plant, our Saviour, in the Gospel of John, says, " I am the true Vine, and my Fa- 

 ther is the Husbandman." And again, in the triumphal Song of David on the plagues 

 which desolated Egypt, and procured the liberation of his ancestors, he says: " He des- 

 troyed their vines with hail, and their Sycamore trees with frost." Of all the grapes pro- 

 duced in the East, those of Canaan were considered to be the finest. Dandini, an Italian 

 traveller, and accustomed of course, to see grapes in great perfection, was surprised at the 

 extraordinary^ size of those produced in the vineyards at Lebanon, which were of the size 

 of prunes, and of the most delicious taste. In the book of Numbers, it is stated that a 

 bunch gathered in the valley of Eschol required two men to carry it some distance, a fact 

 which has been recently' confirmed, if any proof had been needed, by Doubdon, who met 

 with very extraordinary vines near to Bethlehem. Persia seems entitled to the honor of 

 birth to this plant; thence it appears to have found its way into Judea, Greece, and 

 and soon after into Ital}-, Spain, France and Britain. It is, however, contended by 



