248 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



ried excellence and beauty : I will plant in the wilderness, the ce- 

 dar and the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree ' (Isaiah xli. 

 29); that is, says Paxton, 'I will adorn the dreary and barren wil- 

 derness with trees famed for their stature, and the grandeur of their 

 appearance ; the beauty of their form, and the fragrance of their 

 odor.' Again : * Instead of the thorn shall come up the myrtle tree ; 

 and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that 

 shall not be cut off,' Isaiah Iv. 13. 



These quotations, continues the writer just quoted, refer to the 

 effect of the gospel, or the reign of Christ, on the state of the world, 

 and the dispositions of mankind. They foretel the production of a 

 moral paradise, by the creative power of Jehovah, where nothing 

 but sin and misery reigned before. The prophet Zechuiiah chooses 

 the myrtle to express the beauty, and utility, and low condition of 

 the church : ( A man, seated on a red horse, was seen among the 

 myrtle trees which were in the bottom of some valley,' chap. i. 18. 

 This visionary scene, while it presents a just idea of the lowly and 

 depressed state of the church, and . suggests many pleasing reflec- 

 tions concerning her preservation and security under the protection 

 of her Saviour, agrees with the aspect of nature in the East, where 

 the groves of myrtle are so frequently to be seen rising to a consid- 

 erable height, although not so high as to conceal a man on horse- 

 back, especially from one advantageously placed on a rising ground, 

 as the prophet in vision seems to have been. 



The aspect of nature, to which these scriptures refer, is beautifully 

 displayed by the glowing pen of Savary, in his Letters on Greece. 

 Describing a scene at the end of the forest of Flatanen, he says, 

 1 Myrtles, intermixed witli laurel roses, grow in the valleys, to the 

 height often feet. Their snow-white flowers, bordered within with 

 a purple edging, appear to peculiar advantage under the verdant 

 foliage. Each myrtle is loaded with them, and they emit perfumes 

 more exquisite than those of the rose itself: they enchant every 

 one, and the soul is filled with the softest sensations.' 



The original Jewish name of Esther is hedeseh, the feminine of 

 hedes, a myrtle, Esther ii. 7. The note of the Chaldee Targum on 

 the passage seems remarkable : * They called her hedesch, because 

 she was just, and the just are those that are compared to myrtle.' 



THE LILY. 



THIS well-known and beautiful flower is called, in Hebrew, shu- 

 shan, and in Greek krinon; which words seem to denote the light 

 which it so strongly reflects, that even Solomon in all his glory was 

 not arrayed like one of them, Matt. vi. 28, 29. Mr. '['ay lor suggests 

 that this flower was probably designed by the bride, who compares 



