THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 89 



herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the 

 Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation," 

 is language expressive of the firm confidence in 

 God which the prophet entertained, amidst the 

 most terrible famine, and the greatest earthly 

 calamities. 



In Egypt and Palestine grows the sycamore 

 of Scripture, which is not the same tree as the 

 one known by that name in this country. The 

 latter is a species of maple the sycamore of 

 Palestine is a species of fig, (Ficus sycomorus.) 

 It is a wide-spreading tree, fifty or sixty feet 

 high, with a trunk often of such thickness that 

 three men cannot embrace it. Probably our 

 Saviour had such a tree before him when he 

 said, " If ye had faith as a grain of mustard 

 seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be 

 thou plucked up by the root, and be thou 

 planted in the sea ; and it should obey you," 

 Luke xvii. 6. Its vigorous branches and beau- 

 tiful evergreen foliage afford a delightful shade, 

 while its fruit seems to have been an important 

 article of food in Egypt and Palestine, and is 

 still used to a considerable extent. Its import- 

 ance is noticed in Psalm Ixxviii. 47, " He de- 

 stroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore 

 trees with frost," evidently implying a heavy 

 calamity. The lower classes in Egypt at this 

 day think themselves well regaled when they 

 have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, 

 and a jug of water from the Nile. The prophet 

 Amos, we are told by himself, was a " gatherer 

 of sycamore fruit," Amos vii. 14. Its abun- 



