460 GARMENTS SCENTED BY SMELL OF THE FIELDS. 



kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him: and 

 he smelled the smell of his raiment and blessed him and 

 said, See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field, 

 which the Lord hath blessed ; therefore God give thee of the 

 dew of Heaven and the fatness of earth, and plenty of corn 

 and wine." * 



Thus Isaac blessed Jacob, taking as his parable this 

 allusion to the sweet smelling incense of his fields. 

 Scented herbage, we may add, is common to most dry 

 regions, though in the colder countries, where it is found, 

 its aroma is perhaps less generally powerful than where 

 intense solar heat prevails. Nevertheless in exceed- 

 ingly cold and sterile regions of the North, we have 

 sometimes found the highly aromatic carraway (Carum 

 Carui) whose seeds are used by confectioners for cakes, 

 etc., growing in great abundance: a good example 

 of a like kind in a plant inhabiting the Arctic Zone 

 may be cited in the delicately scented Angelica (Ar- 

 changelica Officinalis), which is much used at table in a 

 candied form for dessert purposes. 



The subject of the desert flora is a large one, and 

 thus far but little is to be learned about it in books. 

 Contrary to the generally received opinion there are 

 a good many edible plants, mostly of a bulbous 

 character, and of so succulent a nature that not a 

 few of them furnish both meat and drink to the native 

 nomads. In the Kalahari Desert and the Great Namaqua 

 thirst lands of Southern Africa they seem to be specially 

 numerous. In South America, too, we have many 

 times seen deliciously cool and fragrant fruits of a 

 most refreshing character dug up out of the heated 

 sand of very sterile tracts. These bulbs, which were 



* Genesis xxvii., 26 28. 



