SACRED AND CLASSICAL PLANTING'. 
485 
East. Speaking of the righteous man, it is 
said : — " His branches shall spread, and his 
beauty shall be as the olive-tree." The most 
distinguished, and, to many, the most endear- 
ing, reflection suggested by this tree arises 
from its giving the name to that Mount (the 
Mount of Olives) so famous in the history of 
the Saviour. This mountain lay a little out 
of the city of Jerusalem, towards the east, 
commanding a full view of the metropolis, 
from which it was separated by the valley of 
Je'hoshaphat, and the brook Kedron. To it 
the Redeemer of the world was wont to retire 
in the evening, after He had spent a laborious 
day in teaching the multitudes that attended 
His ministry in Jerusalem ; from it, He gazed 
upon the city, wept over it, and predicted its 
final overthrow. In the garden, which lay at 
the bottom of this hill, He commenced the 
scene of His last sufferings ; and from the 
highest or central elevation, He ascended into 
heaven. The olive crowns the top of the hill 
till this day ; and from its being so remark- 
ably long-lived, it is thought by many, that 
the vicissitudes of eighteen hundred years 
have not yet swept away the identical objects 
under which our Redeemer wandered. To 
many superficial readers of the Bible, and 
especially to those who rest implicitly on our 
translation of it, the olive-tree forms a stum- 
bling-block not easily removed. The plant, 
as is generally known, does not produce leaves 
of a deep green colour, though properly enough 
classed amongst our evergreens. The leaves 
resemble those of the willow, are of a light, or 
yellowish green, and sometimes rusty under- 
neath, and do not equal the expectations of 
travellers. Thus Mr. Sharpe, while in the 
East, observes : — " The fields are in a manner 
covered with olive-trees ; but the tree does 
not answer the character I conceived of it : 
the royal Psalmist, and some of the sacred 
writers, speak with rapture of the green olive 
tree, so that I expected a beautiful green ; 
and I confess I was wretchedly disappointed 
to find its hue resembling that of our hedges 
when they are covered with dust. The olive 
tree may possibly delight in Judea, but un- 
doubtedly will disgust a man accustomed to 
English verdure." Now, it so happens that 
the word translated ijre.cn, means vigour or 
freshness ; and every one must know that ex- 
uberant vegetation is not necessarily of a 
green colour, but frequently of a red or pink- 
ish tinge. In Daniel, the Seventy translators 
render the same word flourishing : fur it is 
absurd to suppose, that when King Nchuehad- 
, nezzar said, — " I was at rest in my house, and 
green in my palace," (as it is in the Hebrew. ) 
he referred to colour. The passage in the 
Bible, therefore, should be rendered : — " T am 
like a vigorous olive tree, in the house of 
God." Rich harvests of this tree waved over 
the plains of Greece ; and it is yet an inhabi- 
tant of that highly-favoured country. It pre- 
sents nothing magnificent, — nothing solemn, 
for it never exceeds fifty feet in height ; yet 
its loveliness and snnniness amply compensate 
for its shrub-like size. A warm, dry air seems 
to suit it best. Hence it was found in greatest 
perfection in Attica and Cilicia. In those 
countries, when regularly propagated for its 
oil, it was the practice to plant the trees thirty 
feet apart, so as to allow the air to circulate 
freely about them on all sides. This tree 
forms a favourite haunt of singing birds, 
having a thin shade, sufficient to shelter them 
from excessive heat, yet not excluding much 
light. 
The Almond, mentioned in Holy Writ, was 
by the Hebrews called shahad, signifying to 
watch, or awake, because after the rigours of 
winter, it is one of the first to hail the 
coming of spring. This idea seems to be re- 
ferred to in the vision which Jeremiah the 
prophet had. " The word of the Lord came 
unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou ? 
And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree. 
Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well 
seen ; for I will hasten My word to perform 
it ;" or rather, " I am hastening or watching 
over My word to fulfil it." The rod of 
Aaron was of the almond-tree, as were also 
the rods which the princes of Israel bore. 
The tree has an interesting history in Greek 
mythology. Demophoon, the son of Theseus 
and rhsedra, on his return from the Trojan 
war, visited Thrace, where he was tenderly 
received and treated by Phyllis, a beautiful 
queen, whose charms were not unappreciated 
by him. He retired to Athens, of which he 
was king, promising to return to Thrace at 
the end of a month. At the expiration of the 
time, the queen wandered daily on the sea- 
shore looking out for her lover, and when at 
last winter came, and he returned not, in an 
agony of despair, she fell dead by the sea-side, 
and was immediately changed by the pitying 
gods into an almond-tree. Her lover soon 
after returned, and hearing what had taken 
place, Hew to the tree and clasped it in his 
arms, when the love of Phyllis, unable even 
then to restrain itself, caused the tree, though 
in winter, to burst forth into blossoms. The 
beauty of this tree when in (lower, at a time 
when others have not begun to bud, renders 
it a most desirable object near to residences. 
It is the first to interrupt the reign of winter, 
and consequently the earliest forerunner of 
the coming spiing. 
I he Apple-tree is mentioned iu Holy Writ ; 
hut I am inclined to believe that our npple 
(l'i/rus Malm) is not the tree alluded to 
in the Sacred text. In Canaan, and the 
