No. 11.— 1858-9.] SCRIPTUEE BOTANY OF CEYLON. 345 



because the shadow thereof is good." (Hos. iv.23.) The Pop- 

 lars above referred to, as well as the trees translated Mul- 

 berries in several parts of the Bible, doubtless refer to a species 

 of Poplar, several beautiful varieties of which grow from 

 Persia westward to England. The famous Aspen tree 

 (Pojnihis Iremula), and likely the tree here spoken, of bears a 

 considerable resemblance to our Bo-tree (Ficus Religiosa). 

 The petioles of its leaves are so arranged, that if the slightest 

 breath of wind blows, they tremble: and it was formerly sup- 

 posed that it obtained this trembling motion from the circum- 

 stance that the Cross on which our Saviour was crucified was 

 made of its wood. The leaves of the Bo-tree tremble in the 

 same way, in consequence of their long slender petioles and 

 the accumulations on their leaves. This trembling is said, in 

 the Buddhist books, to have been communicated to it from the 

 circumstance that it was the first tree under which Buddha 

 reposed. 



" The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth ; the 

 pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree 

 even all the trees of the field, are withered ; because joy is 

 withered away from the sons of men." (Joel i. 12.) The 

 "Apple tree" in the above passage, as well as the "Apple" so 

 often referred to by Solomon, in his Song, and in Proverbs, 

 is, doubtless, the Citron, which is grown in several places in 

 Ceylon. The Shaddock, known to us all, was long ago called 

 the Forbidden fruit, or Adam's Apple, and it is sold as such 

 to the present day in the London shops. It is generally 

 called Pumalo, and belongs to the same genus as the Citron. 



The Sycamine is a species of Mulberry, known as the 

 Morus nigra, and which our rata-embilla, or Indian 

 Mulberry, common here, a good deal resembles. 



The Aloes mixed with Myrrh, and put on the body of oar 

 Saviour by Nicodemus, appear to have been the produce of 

 a species of Aquilaria, of which our patta walla (Gijrinops 

 walla), is a representation. 



