FLOWERING SHRUBS 



done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring 

 forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" 



Beautiful are the allusions made in the Song of Solomon 

 in his invitation to the beloved to go forth to the garden he 

 had planted. " 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." 



" Let us get up early to the vineyards ; let us see if the 

 vines flourish, whether the tender grapes appear." 



Probably the culture of the vine was among the earliest 

 labors of the husbandman, and must have been of most 

 ancient usage, the first work enjoined by the Almighty 

 Creator when he placed man in the Garden of Eden which 

 was most likely a large and fertile tract of country already 

 enriched with every tree and herb and flower that would 

 prove useful for the support of life and contribute to man's 

 enjoyment. Adam was instructed by his Maker to till the 

 ground and dress it and keep it. 



This employment was ordained for health and pleasure, 

 not for toil or weariness. This last condition arose when 

 sin had marred the fair beauty of God's world and the sin- 

 smitten earth no longer yielded its spontaneous fertility as 

 in the day when sinless man first stood in his innocence on 

 the then unpolluted earth, a fearless being in the presence 

 of a holy God. 



The vine, which might have formed a delightful portion 

 of man's food in the Edenic garden, must from henceforth 

 yield its luscious grapes only by care and labor. The wild 

 vines must be pruned and trained and kept free from noxious 

 weeds and hurtful insects; they were no longer the fruit 

 of the Lord's vineyard. Who can tell but that our wild 

 Canadian Frost and Fox Grapes may not be the degenerated 



12 177 



