42 ALOES. 



forms, &quot; as the trees of lign-aloes.&quot; Perhaps many of the tents 

 had their colored ensigns floating in the breeze at their sides. 

 It was customary in ancient times to run the spear into the 

 ground by the side of the tent, and to suspend on the top some 

 little fragments of cloth or other material. This is at present 

 the custom of the Bedouins in the desert, who frequently carry 

 tufts of feathers or wool at their spear-heads. The similarity 

 of the aloe-plants in form, with their rich dress of green and 

 their flowers at the top of their spikes, would very appro 

 priately be suggested at the sight of the numerous tents of 

 Israel. Indeed, no plant could have been selected which 

 would have furnished a more beautiful and suitable figure 

 than this; and the phrase &quot;which the Lord hath planted&quot; is a 

 method of expressing the exceeding excellence of the object 

 thus described, as in the case of Nimrod, who was spoken of 

 as a mighty hunter &quot;before the Lord.&quot; Gen. x. 9. 



Other allusions in Scripture are made to its fragrance, 

 which may refer both to that of the plant and of the gum. 

 An eminent writer* on plants, who was a physician and lived 

 in the times soon after the death of our Lord and during 

 the reign of Nero, speaks of the gum as well known, and 

 describes that variety as the best which is obtained from the 

 beautiful plant we have described; and, moreover, it seems to 

 have been known long before in India: hence, as in the gums 

 of frankincense and of myrrh, the extract of the aloe might have 

 been used in the times of Solomon. When freshly gathered, 



* Dioscorides : so Pliny s Nat. Hist. 



