i. 14; Jer. viii. 7); and the rock-dove or true wild pigeon (Columba livia). In addition to the passage under notice, there are other five in the Song in which mention is made of the dove (yōnāh). "Behold thou art most fair; behold thou art most fair; thou hast dove's eyes" (i. 15). The same thought is again intimated-"Thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks; thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Mount Gilead" (iv. 1). In the former passage the voluptuous, dreamy softness which the imagination of eastern poets attribute to the eye of the dove, is referred to; in the latter, the contrast between the soft, light-coloured eye of the pigeon, and the locks glossy black as the hair of the goats which feed on Gilead, is suggested. Again, when describing her beloved, the bride sings-"His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set." "The bride repeats the compliment to her beloved, and even exaggerates it-'His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.' There is a luxurious, delicious haze and indistinctness about such poetic extravagances which captivate the oriental imagination. Nor is the comparison wholly extravagant. Doves delight in clear water-brooks, and often bathe in them; and then their liquid, loving eyes, 'fitly set' within a border of softest skyey blue, do look as though just washed in transparent milk."

The king uses the term as one of endearment (v. 2)

So in vi. 9, likewise-" My dove, my undefiled is one." In the time of her "sleep" he had been waiting long-his head had become wet with dew. Reviving, she heard his voice still in tenderness, and deep affection, saying "My dove, my undefiled."

The appearance of the ripe pomegranate (iv. 3) (Punica granatum) supplies another figure to the king in the praise of his "fair love." Nature and art are alike drawn on to furnish imagery to denote her spiritual beauty. Raven locks are parted on a pale brow. Snow-white teeth are seen between "lips like a scarlet line." The affection which flushes her temples as she gazes on the king and hearkens to his words, leads him to say

"Pomegranate-like thy temples 'neath thy locks" (ver. 3).

The same plant is used to indicate other aspects of grace in the church"Thy plants an orchard are of pomegranates" (ver. 13).

The sentiment in verse 3 is repeated at chapter vi. 7, where, too, the bride is represented going down to her garden of nuts to see whether the pomegranate "budded." In chapter vii. 12, she is introduced asking the king to accompany her to see again if "the pomegranates

bud forth." "Spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate " is referred to in chapter viii. 2. This plant has been fully noticed under 1 Sam. xiv. 2-which see.

In his praises of his spouse, the king names the treasures of her garden or paradise. Among these he mentions "spikenard and saffron,

calamus and cinnamon." "Saffron," Heb. karkom, is the only "sweet" in the garden which falls to be noticed here. Saffron is produced by one of the Iris family of plants (Iridaceae), the so-called saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). It is used as a dye and a drug. The sweet-scented Syrian variety yielded a costly perfume.

The stigmata of this crocus are of a deep orange colour, and highly aromatic. These are gathered, and form the saffron of commerce. It is imported into England from the Levant, Sicily, France, and Spain. That of English growth is most highly esteemed for its deep shade. It is still cultivated in Cambridgeshire, and has given its name to a town in Essex, Saffron Walden. It was much more used in medicine in olden times than it is now. An old herbalist refers to it as "an herb of the sun, under the Lion, and therefore, he says, you need not demand the reason why it strengthens the heart so exceedingly. Let not above ten grains be given at a time; for the sun, which is the fountain of light, may dazzle the eyes and make them blind; a cordial being taken in an inordinate quantity, hurts the heart instead of healing it." It was also much used in cookery. In chemistry the colouring matter of true saffron is known as crocine.

แ

When Jacob told his sons to go a second time down to Egypt, he ordered them to take, among the other fruits of the land, some The word used in Genesis (botnim) differs

as a present for the ruler. from that employed in vi.

11.

virgins" (ver. 10), the "bride"

nuts"

Following the exclamation of the

says

"I went down to the garden of the nuts

To see the valley's fruits."

"Nuts," Heb. egōz. The resemblance of the current Arabic name for walnuts to the Hebrew term used here, warrants the belief that this kind of fruit is referred to by the bride. See under Gen. xliii. 11.

The walnut-tree (Juglans regia) belongs to the natural order of dicotyledonous plants Juglandacea, or walnut family. It is a native of the East, but is now common in temperate and southern Europe. It is cultivated chiefly as an ornamental tree in Britain, though in some of the midland counties and in the south of England its fruit fully ripens. It is found in most countries of temperate and southern Asia. The generic name "Juglans," is a contracted form of Jovis glans, the nut of Jupiter. "Walnut" is equivalent to walled-nut; so called from the membrane which, from a central stalk in the heart of the kernel, divides the grain of the nut into four lobes.

The

Fig. 137.

There are several well-known species of walnut-trees, all of which when full-grown are of a large size. In a congenial soil it will add two feet to its height annually until it reach to twenty or twentyfive feet, when its upward growth becomes either very slow or is arrested altogether. The trunk of the common walnut-tree (Juglans regia) is covered with a brown, deeply furrowed bark. The branches are widespreading, grey-coloured, and smooth. The leaves are elongated, oval, smooth, slightly serrated, and of a beautiful dark-green colour. The flowers, which appear in April, are male and female. two sexes grow on the same tree, and are easily distinguished. The male or staminiferous flowers are arranged in single drooping catkins, and are borne by shoots produced a year before the catkin. The female or pistiliferous flowers are placed on the end of shoots developed in the same year as the flower. The nut is inclosed in a drupe, or fleshy covering, like the plum, &c. The wood of the walnut-tree is much used in carpentry. It is variously veined and shaded with black streaks on a brown ground, and is susceptible of a high polish. The fruit yields an oil of various qualities; the best of which is used by painters in preparing their colours.

The king, addressing the royal bride, speaks of her beauty, of her stateliness, and of the joy which her presence would yield to him:

"How fair art thou, beloved, and how pleasant!

Thy stature's like a palm, thy breasts as clusters.

Now will I to the palm-tree go, I said,

And of its boughs take hold; thy breasts shall be
As clusters of the vine."

The palm-tree's usual form of growth is erect. The stem, bursting

from the root, generally shoots straight upwards, and arrests the eye by its stately beauty. The "clusters" named in ver. 7, have, without good reason, been associated in our translation with the vine. Grape clusters are specially named in ver. 8. In the first reference we have the palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and its clusters of dates; in the second, the vine and its branches of ripe grapes. The dates are linked up with the stature of the bride; the grapes with her person, yielding joy to her royal spouse. In the one case we have the outstanding beauty of the church, as she hangs forth her supplies of food to the hungry; in the other, her spiritual loveliness revealed to Him who rests in his love over her. Jeremiah makes another use of the erect appearance of the palm-tree. When characterizing the vanity of the idols cut from the trees of the forest, decked with silver and gold, and fastened to their places with hammers, he says:-" The customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest (the work of the hands of the workmen) with the axe: they deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not; they must needs be borne because they cannot go" (x. 3-5).