THE SCRIPTURE ON THE PLAINS OF PALESTINE. 5 



vegetation excellent pasture grasses cover the plains- 

 fine timber also begins to appear along the water 

 courses: indeed this part of the world, from its generally 

 soft and salubrious climate, brilliant sunshine, and 

 more or less abundant rainfall, is capable of being 

 turned into a regular garden, in which under a proper 

 system of cultivation, most of the finest fruits and 

 flowers, and other of the choicest productions of the 

 tropics, can be acclimatized and produced in extra- 

 ordinary variety and excellence. It is therefore to this 

 portion of the earth's surface that these beautiful lines 

 translated from Goethe may, as we conceive, be held 

 most closely to apply, where he says 



" Know'st thou the land where the lemon trees bloom, 

 Where the gold orange glows, in the deep thicket's gloom; 

 Where a wind ever soft, from the blue heaven blows, 

 And the groves are of laurel, and myrtle, and rose." ' 



Many striking descriptions are also to be found in 

 The Scriptures, illustrative of the horticultural . luxuri- 

 ance of gardens situated in Bible lands, in the midst 

 of the wide plains of Palestine which form part of 

 what we have designated The Region of the Great 

 Plains in that part of the world, and Solomon the 

 King thus sings of their glories 

 " For lo, the winter is past ; the rain is over and gone. 

 The flowers appear upon the earth, 

 The time of the singing of birds is come: 

 And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 

 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, 

 And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell, 

 Arise my love, my fair one, and come away." f 



* Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Book iii., Ch. i. (Harriett's 

 JFamiliar Quotations). 



f The Song of Solomon, ch. ii., verses ti to 13. 



