BOTANICAL: THE UPPER CLASSES. 171 



It was known by the name of " Old Moses," and was 

 one of the most sylvan patriarchs of California. The 

 annular rings which describe the age of a tree, one per 

 year, amounted to 4841, so that its term of existence was 

 a longer one than any of the world's known, or at least 

 authenticated, history ; it may have been a fine stripling 

 when Noah built the ark. The hollow portion of its 

 huge and massive stem afforded standing room for nearly 

 three hundred full-grown men. 



Now for another specimen of antiquity. " Imagination 

 bodies forth " a long and profoundly interesting story 

 while we are looking at the object before us, which is a 

 section of a cedar of Lebanon, from an Assyrian palace at 

 Nineveh, where it had been standing and lying for three 

 thousand years. Shall we be more interested in the 

 examination of its beautiful structure than in listening 

 to its still small voice ? 



It came from the British Museum, and from the 

 highest authority of the botanical department there we 

 learn that when it arrived it still retained the odour 

 peculiar to its nature ; and that had been preserved for 

 three thousand years, which carry us back to the time 

 of David, Samuel, and Saul. Does it not supply us 

 with a text for a sermon, " The memory of the just is 

 blessed "? and does it not also remind us of the words of 

 one in whose time perhaps it was placed in the palace 

 of his country's enemy, " The righteous shall grow like a 

 cedar in Lebanon," that is, shall be preserved for ever? 



Here are sections of the Pandanus spiralis, the screw 

 pine, reminding us of the tree associated with growth in 

 the words just quoted, "The righteous shall flourish as a 

 palm tree," that is, from icithin, whence all true spiritual 

 growth proceeds. 



These interesting specimens the first two being 



