SECTION I. 

 FRUIT TREES. 



THE APPLE, OR CITRON TREE 



THE apple tree, is, in the several passages where it is spoken of, 

 represented as one of the most noble trees in the garden of nature, 

 emitting a delightful fragrance, and bearing fruit of a most delicious 

 kind. 'As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my 

 beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great 

 delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste,' Cant. ii. 3. * I will go 

 up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof; now 

 also thy breast shall be as the clusters of the vine, and the smell of 

 thy nose like apples,' chap. vii. 8. In the following passage it is 

 classed with those trees which are peculiarly beautiful and valua- 

 ble : 'The vine is dried up, and the -fig tree languisheth ; the pome- 

 granate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees 

 of the field are withered: because joy is withered away from the 

 sons of men,' Joel i. 12. 



There are six places in which the word occurs ; and from them 

 we learn that it was thought the noblest of the trees of the wood, 

 and that its fruit was very sweet or pleasant (Cant. ii. 3,) of the col- 

 or of gold (Prov. xxv. Jl,) extremely fragrant (Cant. viii. 8,) and 

 proper for those to smell who were ready to faint, chap. ii. 5. 

 The fifth and sixth passages (Cant. vii. 5, Joel, i. 12,) contain noth- 

 ing particular, but the description the other four give, perfectly an- 

 swers to the citron-tree and its fruit. 



To the manner of serving up apples in his court, Solomon seems 

 to refer, when he says, 'A word fitly spoken is like apples 

 [citrons] of gold in pictures of silver,' Prov. xxv. 11 : whether as 

 Maimonides supposes, wrought with open work like baskets, or cu- 

 riously chased, it is not material to determine. 



THE ALMOND TREE. 



THE almond tree is too well known to need a description here. 

 It flowers in the month of January, or February, and by March 

 brings its fruits to maturity. To this there is a reference in the vi- 



