MENTIONED IN THE GOSPELS. 
435 
Will the plant, for instance, arising from the grain of mus- 
tard seed, dropped into barren, unprotected, and neglect- 
ed land, whether in Judea or in great Britain, bear any 
comparison, either in freshness or stateliness, with that 
which arises from the grain dropped into land, laboured, 
sheltered, and enriched ? What will a mustard plant be, 
growing in a farm or garden in Judea, which is warm, com- 
pared with one in a similar situation in this country, which 
is cold ? Would not the plant of this country be little in 
size, and stunted in growth ; while the plant of Judea far 
exceeded the stature of a man, and spread into branches, in 
which the birds of the air took up their abode ? 
A mustard plant does not properly consist of a single 
stem, but a number of branches going off at angles. These 
are clothed with leaves, large and close, capable of concealing 
the fowls of the air, which light upon, or hop among them. 
Though the phrase — fowls of the air — used by Luke, 
has a magnificent sound, yet we are persuaded, that the 
smaller of the feathered tribes are meant ; or as they are 
also called by Matthew, the birds of the air. 
Now birds of the air lodge in the branches of this plant, 
in our extended fields of mustard. Its leaves conceal them 
from the eyes of men and other animals : though they no 
more build their nests among such plants, than they are said 
to do in the mustard plant, mentioned in the Gospels. 
Some, indeed, have given that turn to the phrase, lodging in 
the branches ; but, assuredly, that phrase does not mean 
nestling, or building a nest, but sitting among the branches. 
There are three species of mustard known in Britain, 
the wild mustard, the w^hite mustard, and the blackftaus- 
tard. Whether these kinds of mustard are known in Pa- 
lestine, we have not heard. Hasselquist mentions three 
kinds, the treacle mustard, the buckler mustard, and the 
tower mustard, as certain plants are called in the English 
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