483 
SACRED AND CLASSICAL PLANTING. 
rounding country, it is almost worthless, and 
is by no means entitled to the praise bestowed 
on that tree by the Spirit of inspiration. The 
inhabitants of Egypt and Palestine import 
their apples from Damascus, their own 
orchards producing no fruit fit for use. It is 
impossible, therefore, that a tree whose fruit 
was represented to be most delicious and com- 
forting, could be found in the " crab, or 
wilding," whose fruit, according to Pliny, had 
" many a foul word and shrewd curse given 
it," on account of its sourness. Besides, the 
apple of the Scriptures is classed with the 
vine and fig, palm and pomegranate, as fur- 
nishing a grateful repast, and the failure of 
which was reckoned a serious calamity, — an 
unquestionable proof, that we must look else- 
where for the real apple of the Holy Land. 
In Patrick's Commentary it is thought that 
the word Tkepucheem, translated apples, de- 
notes any species of fruit emitting a fragrant 
odour ; but this definition is too vague to be 
useful. The term occurs in six passages of 
Scripture, and in them all it is given as an 
appropriate title to one of the noblest trees in 
the garden of Nature. " As the apple-tree 
among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved 
among the sons ; I sat down under His shadow 
with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to 
my taste." Again : — " Stay me with flagons, 
comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." 
"A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver." Now, when it is known 
that trees of the citrus family flourished in 
Judea several centuries before the birth of 
Christ, and when it is recollected how appro- 
priate the passages quoted become when 
applied to the citron, or orange, there is little 
doubt of their referring to the genus just 
mentioned. Flourishing under oriental skies, 
the citron becomes a large and beautiful tree, 
having a perennial verdure, and perfuming 
the air with exquisite odour. It is with 
peculiar propriety, therefore, that the spouse 
exclaimed : — " As the citron or orange-tree 
among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved 
among the sons. I sat down under His 
shadow with great delight, and His fruit was 
sweet to my taste." Those who are desirous 
of trying orange and citron-trees in England, 
may take courage from the fact that they grow 
to a large size, with a slight protection during 
severe winters, at Salcombe, near Kingsbridge, 
in Devonshire ; and at Dartmouth, Luscombe, 
and Kitley. I am inclined to think that 
if spaces were cleared in plantations, with an 
open space to the south, these trees might be 
planted in such places with every prospect of 
success. In severe weather the tops and 
stems might be thatched with dead branches, 
and their roots covered with dry litter and 
also thatched. This is the fruit which King 
Juba describes as the apple of the Hesperides, 
by which name it was known throughout 
Africa. The most ancient Greek writer who 
describes this tree is Theophrastus, who says 
it was grafted on the common apple to pro- 
duce black citrons, and on the mulberry for 
the sake of getting the fruit of a reddish 
colour. Such things are quite impossible ; 
all statements like these tend only to weaken 
the testimony of this great naturalist in other 
matters, and show clearly how closely the 
earliest efforts in history are allied to the works 
of the mythologists. This tree thrives re- 
markably well in Lower Egypt ; and in the 
Garden of Heliopolis, where it shades the 
Temple of the Sun, it appears in matchless 
beauty. It is questionable whether the citron 
was known to the ancient inhabitants of Hellas ; 
for Antiphanes observes in his Boetian, that 
it had only been recently introduced into 
Attica : — 
"A . 'Twould be absurd to speak of -what's to eat, 
As if you thought of such things ; but, fair maid, 
Take of these apples. 
B. Oh! how beautiful ! 
A. They are, indeed, since hither they but lately 
Have come from the great king. 
B. By Phosphoros ! 
I could have thought them from the Hesperian 
bowers, 
Where th' apples are of gold. 
A . There are but three ! 
B. The beautiful is nowhere plentiful." 
Viewed in connexion with the present sub- 
ject, the Vine forms a most important tree. 
No effort of mine can add anything to the 
delight with which this well-known plant is 
looked upon by all nations. The classics 
seem to have written under its shade : their 
pages exhale the sweet odour of its fruit. 
It is frequently mentioned in the Old and 
New Testaments. It was known to the inha- 
bitants of Judea both in its wild and culti- 
vated forms, though the former in all proba- 
bility was not, strictly speaking, a vine. It 
was certainly not the Vitis Labrusca, or Fox 
Grape of botanists. In the vales near Jordan, 
not far distant from Jericho and the Dead Sea, 
is found growing in great abundance the vine 
of Sodom, which produces fruit as bitter as 
gall, and according to Bishop Lowth as deadly 
as the poison of a serpent. This deleterious 
grape is alluded to by Moses in terms fully 
bearing out this description : " For their vine 
is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of 
Gomorrah ; their grapes are grapes of gall, 
their clusters are bitter, their wine is the 
poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of 
asps." The tree, however, referred to so 
often in the Bible and in Classic Song, is the 
grape-vine ( Vitis vinifera), well known 
throughout all the temperate zones of the 
Old World as an exuberant climber, and pro- 
