THE PALMS OF EUROPE AND AFRICA. 39 



groves of date palms form the great feature of 

 tliat parched region, and few trees besides 

 can maintain an existence. The excessive 

 dryness of this arid tract, where rain seldom 

 falls, is such that wheat refuses to grow, and 

 even barley, maize, and CafFre corn, {Holcus 

 sorghum,) afford the husbandman only a scanty 

 and uncertain crop. The hot blasts from the 

 soutli are scarcely supportable even by the native 

 himself, and yet here forests of date palms 

 flourish, and form a screen impervious to the 

 rays of the sun, beneath the shade of whicli the 

 lemon, the orange, and the pomegranate, are 

 cherished, and the vine climbs up by means of 

 its twisted tendrils ; and although reared in 

 constant shade, all these fruits acquire a more 

 delicious flavour than in -what would seem a 

 more favoui-able climate. How beautiful a 

 comment do these facts supply to the v/ords 

 of Holy Writ, " The righteous shall flourish 

 like the palm tree !" Unmoved by the scorching 

 and v/ithering blasts of temptations or perse- 

 cution, the Christian, sustained by the secret 

 springs of Divine grace, lives and grows in 

 likeness to his Divine Master, when all others 

 are overcome, and their professions wither. 

 How striking is the contrast in the psalm just 

 quoted ! The wicked and worldlings are com- 



