THE MYRTLE. 247 



colored, the red tint of the ramifications which support them, form 

 a combination of the most agreeable effect. These flowers r whose 

 shades are so delicate, diffuse around the sweetest odors, and em- 

 balm the gardens and the apartments which they embellish ; they 

 accordingly form the nosegay of beauty ; the- women ornaments of 

 the prisons of jealousy, whereas they might be that of a whole 

 country take pleasure to deck themselves with these beautiful 

 clusters of fragrance, to adorn their apartments with them, to carry 

 them to the bath, to hold them in their hand : in a word, to perfume 

 their bosom with them. They attach to this possession, which the 

 mildness of the climate, and the facility of culture, seldom refuse 

 them, a value so high, that they would willingly appropriate it ex- 

 clusively to themselves ; and they suffer with impatience Christian 

 women and Jewesses to partake of it with them.' 



ALOES. 



THIS is an extensive tribe of plants, ihe principal species amount- 

 ing to nine in number: they differ much in size. 



From this plant is extracted the drug called aloes, which is a ve- 

 ry bitter liquor, used in embalming, to prevent putrefaction. Nic- 

 odemus brought abont a hundred pounds weight of myrrh and aloes, 

 to embalm the body of our Saviour, John xix. 39. 



THE MYRTLE. 



IN our ungenial climate, the myrtle is a lowly shrub ; but in oth- 

 er and more favorable countries, it sometimes grows to a small tree. 

 It is a hard woody root, that sends forth a great number of small 

 flexible branches, furnished with leaves like those of box, but much 

 smaller, and more pointed: they are soft to the touch, shining, 

 smooth, of a beautiful green, and have a smell. The flowers grow 

 among the leaves, and consist of five white petals, disposed in the 

 form of a rose : they have an agreeable perfume, and an ornament- 

 al appearance. They are succeeded by an oval, oblong berry, 

 adorned with a sort of crown, made up of the segments of the calix: 

 these are divided into three cells, containing the seeds. 



The myrtle is, in scripture, sometimes classed with large trees, as 

 the cedar and the olive, compared with which it is, in point of size, 

 very inconsiderable. But the seeming impropriety vanishes, when 

 it is considered that the prophet intends to describe a scene of va- 



