108 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : 

 and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon 

 in all his glory was not arrayed like one 

 of these," Matt. vi. 28, 29. Many -other 

 liliaceous plants, of varied form and beautiful 

 colours, adorn the plains of Palestine and 

 other tropical countries, often abundant as the 

 buttercups and wild flowers of the meadows of 

 our native land. A singular plant, called the 

 rose of Jericho, (Anastatica hierochuntina,) a 

 plant of the cruciform order, is a native of 

 Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. When full- 

 grown it contracts its rigid branches into a ball, 

 which is easily withdrawn from the sand by 

 the wind, and hurried from place to place. 

 But as soon as it is exposed to water the 

 branches relax and spread flat, as if its life were 

 renewed, and this will take place after the 

 plant has been many years dried up. Some 

 superstitious tales are told of it, among which 

 it is said to have bloomed on Christmas-eve, to 

 salute the birth of the Redeemer, and to have 

 paid homage to his resurrection by remaining 

 expanded till Easter. 



The cedar of Lebanon is peculiar to Pales- 

 tine, having been found nowhere but on the 

 mountain whose name it bears. The cedars 

 are now but few in number. It is, however, 

 generally considered that the " cedar" so often 

 mentioned in Scripture, was not the tree we 

 now understand by that name, as its timber is 

 comparatively valueless, and has but little 

 fragrance. It was, doubtless, some coniferous 



