XH I'KEFACF, TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The distinctive ch;iracter of jasper from otlier minerals that represent it is, 

 " its opacity." The Greek -n'ord as used by the Apostle nndoul)tedly 

 designated the stone now called heliotrope or bloodstone, a mineral of a 

 remarkably deep rich green and translucent, but spotted with opake red 

 spots, supposed fo be red jasper. Tliere is in it something peculiarly agree- 

 able to the eye above all other precious stones I ever saw, or that probably 

 exist, and with heliotrope inserted in the version, the imagination of every 

 reader would picture to himself a foundation for the Heavenly Jerusalem of 

 the pleasantest stone for the eye to gaze upon that earth can produce. 



Murray, in his Encyclopaedia of Geograjihy, the first work of its class, 

 says, " To the fig tribe belongs the famous banyan of India, commonly 

 called peepul tree, and constantly planted about Hindoo temples (Ficiis 

 reUgiosa)." But the famous banyan is not commonl}' called peepul, but 

 bir, and the jDecpul is not the banj-an, and the tree which is usually planted 

 about Hindu temples is not the bauj-an, but the peepul, and the banj'an is 

 not Ficus relkjiosa, but Ficus iiidica. Again, he remarks, " Far superior to 

 this (the cocoa) in the magnitude of its leaves, of which a single one will 

 shelter twelve men, is the palmj^ra palm {Borufisus fahcUiJbnnin), which 

 sometimes attains to one hundred feet, while its trunk yields abundantly 

 toddy or palm wine." 



It is true the palmyra produces toddy, not however from the trunk, 

 but from the spathcs that bear the flowers and fruits; but the leaf of the 

 palmyra is not much larger than a large cabbage leaf, and the reference to 

 the leaf should have been to the great fan j^alm of Ceylon, Conjpha 

 umhraculifera, a palm not of the same genus with the jjalmyra. 



In a little book published by the American Tract Society, it is 

 written, " In some hot countries, where water is scarce, travellers obtain a 

 supply from the palm tree," and the statement is illustrated by a very 

 good representation of the connnon plantain tree with a fine stream of 

 water gushing from an incision that has been made in the trunk. 



The writer had jirobably some confused ideas of the palm producing 

 toddy, or the traveller's tree, handsome urania, which produces water when 

 a leaf is broken off, or of the water vine jjhj-tocrene, an immense creeper, 

 that grows on our thirsty mountain sides, which, when dissevered, discharges 

 a large quantity of water, that is a most grateful beverage on a hot day 

 when far above the streams of the valleys. 



In one of the elaborate volumes of the United States Exploring 

 Exjicdition, it is said, " In its wild slate the peacock is jjeculiar to 

 Hindustan," while they are roving wild all over tliese I'rovinces, Aracan 

 and the Burman Empire. "Webster defines danimer as " a resinous substance 



