ay 
BLACKNESS. 5 
done 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 en- 
chanted 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. 
nna 
BLACKNESS. 
EBONY. 
Pruto, 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. 




