THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. Ill 



all the south of Europe, but it appears to have 

 originally come from Asia, and grows wild 

 abundantly about Aleppo and Lebanon. Its 

 longevity is great. Some plantations of it in Italy, 

 as at Terne, are supposed to have existed from 

 the time of Pliny ; and in Judaea and Galilee, 

 clumps of several thousand olive trees fre- 

 quently occur, which are, doubtless, the re- 

 mains of ancient plantations. 



But we must hasten to mention a few other 

 plants of Palestine. It is an interesting coun- 

 try in its flora, and deeply so in its associations, 

 and this must be our excuse for dwelling on it 

 so long. The cypress grows there, and ap- 

 pears to be the "gopher wood" of which the 

 ark was built, (Gen. vi. 14.) Some species of 

 acacia are also found ; the wood of one of which, 

 (Acacia horrida,) a thorny tree, seems to have 

 been the "shittim" wood used in constructing 

 the ark of the testimony, the altar of burnt 

 offering, the boards of the tabernacles, etc., 

 (Exod. xxv. xxvii.) and deserves the name 

 given to it by the Greek translators, meaning 

 " wood that never decays." The pomegranate is, 

 and was, very common in Palestine and Syria. 

 It was one of the productions which Moses 

 especially distinguished in his address to the 

 Israelites, as characterising the rich fertility of 

 the land. The fruit was also one of the three 

 kinds which the spies brought as favourable 

 specimens of the produce of the country. The 

 flowers and fruit are both very beautiful ; the 

 latter is about the size of an orange, very jwicy, 



