BLACKNESS. 
57 
upon the earth. Brydone saw the ancient 
city of Syracuse entirely covered by great 
aloes in flower ; their elegant branches giving 
to the promontory which bounded the coast, 
the appearance of an enchanted forest. These 
plants also prosper well in our gardens. The 
collection in the museum of Paris is said to 
be the most complete in the world. 
These magnificent and monstrous members 
of the vegetable kingdom are also found in 
barbarous Africa. There they grow upon the 
rocks in arid and sandy soil, in the midst of 
that burning atmosphere in which scarce 
aught but tigers and lions can breathe and 
live. Let us bless Providence, then, for 
raising in our climate verdant bowers over 
our heads, and for spreading under our feet 
the soft carpet of grass, ornamented with 
saffron, violets, and daisies. 
BLACKNESS. 
EBONY. 
Pluto, god of the infernal regions, was 
seated upon a throne of ebony. We say, of 
one notoriously wicked, “that he has a heart 
as black as ebony.” This proverb originates 
in the circumstance of the aubier of the 
ebony tree being white, its foliage soft and 
silvery, its flowers beautiful and brilliant, 
while the heart, only, of the tree is really 
black. 
