exported from Ceylon. Supplies are also obtained from India, China, and Java. The outer bark is coarse. The sweet or spicy cinnamon mentioned here is the very thin inner rind. In the earliest period of Hebrew history this, with the balm and myrrh named in Gen. xxxvii. 25, would be obtained from Ceylon through the Arabian traders. Later it would be brought by the ships of Tharshish (1 Kings x. 22).

"The present aspect of 'the cinnamon gardens,' which surround Colombo on the land-side, exhibits the effects of a quarter of a century of neglect, and produces a feeling of disappointment and melancholy. The beautiful shrubs which furnish the renowned spice have been allowed to grow wild, and in some places are scarcely visible, owing to undergrowth of jungle, and the thick envelopment of climbing plants, bignonias, ipomoeas, the quadrangular vine, and the marvellous pitcherplant (Nepenthes distillatoria), whose eccentric organization is still a scientific enigma. One most interesting flower, which encumbers the

cinnamon-trees, is a night-blowing convolvulus, the moonflower of Europeans, called by the natives alanga, which never blooms in the day, but opens its exquisite petals when darkness comes on, and attracts the eye through the gloom, by its pure and snowy whiteness. Less than a century has elapsed since these famous gardens were formed by the Dutch, and already they are relapsing into wilderness. Every recent writer on Ceylon has dwelt on their beauty and luxuriance, but henceforward it will remain to speak only of their decay."-(Sir E. Tennent.)

"Calamus," Hebrew kanch, is fully noticed under 1 Kings xiv. 15; 2 Kings xviii. 21; Job xxxi. 22; and Matt. xi. 7-which see. A specific form of calamus or reed is mentioned here, sweet, literally spicy, calamus (Kaneh bosem). The word expressing species is rendered "spice" in chapter xxxv. 28, and in other five passages of Scripture. The plant referred to is the Andropogon aromaticus or fragrant beardgrass, known also under the name Calamus odoratus or sweet calamus. The roots, stems, and leaves are highly odoriferous. An oil noted for its

fragrance is distilled from them. This species is a native of India. It would be obtained by the Hebrews in the same way as cinnamon. This, as well as other sweet-smelling grasses, was made more widely known in Europe when the soldiers of Alexander returned from the Indian campaign. One species of beardgrass (A. muricatum) is well known in India, and its roots are much used in the manufacture of screens for doors and windows. In the heat of the day these are moistened with water, and as the breeze plays freely through them, they give off a delightful perfume.

This plant is not to be confounded with the Egyptian sugar cane (Saccharum cylindricum), which many have held to be the sweet cane mentioned by Isaiah (xliii. 24). It is clear from the description of the prophet, that the species now under notice is referred to in that passage -which see. Calamus is named with cinnamon in Song iv. 15, and as among the merchandise which Dan and Javan brought to the markets of Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 19).

Cassia," Hebrew kiddah, was the other principal spice, which was to enter as a chief ingredient into this "ointment compound after the art of the apothecary." The Hebrew name is derived from a word meaning "to split." It is so called from the way in which the bark of the cassia shrub is prepared as a perfume. The plant referred to bears a close resemblance to cinnamon, and belongs to the same natural order. It is the cinnamon cassia of botanists (Cinnamomum cassia), a native of India and China. It can be distinguished from cinnamon proper by certain characteristics of its leaves, which have three ribs uniting a little above the base. Cassia was also carried to the markets of Tyre, as was cinnamon (Ezek. xxvii. 19). Dan and Javan journeyed far to obtain it. They "went to and fro." With these spices they brought "bright iron." In India still, the country of cinnamon and cassia, the bright iron is extensively prepared by the natives, whose mode of smelting is of the most primitive and simple description, and may not have altered since the day when they sent it to the markets of Tyre.

In Psalm xlv. 8, a different Hebrew word (ketzioth) is translated "cassia." It was one of the perfumes which made the garments of the king fragrant. The word is derived from a root which means to rub down or abrade, and no doubt points to a preparation of bark or wood used as a perfume, and scattered among clothes to repel moths, and at the same time make the garments fragrant. Several odoriferous woods are still used in Arabia and India for these purposes. Royle believes that the ketzioth is the koost of the Arabs, the sweet Aucklandia (4.

costus) of botanists, but the term does not appear to mean more than abraded fragrant wood.

Instructions are next given as to the perfume which was to be made with sweet spices after the art of the apothecary. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices, with pure frankincense; of each shall there be a like weight. And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy" (ver 34, 35).

Fig. 19.

Stacte (Balsamodendron kataf).

Stacte,” Hebrew nātāph, is the gum of one of the myrrh-producing family of plants (Amyridacea). The tree which produces stacte is the amyris, or Balsamodendron kataf of botanists. It was found by Professor Ehrenberg on the borders of Arabia Felix.

"Onycha," Hebrew shěhheleth. The theory that this perfume was produced by an Indian mollusc is not tenable, though supported by the authority of several learned names. Like the other ingredients of this fragrant confection, it was, doubtless, a gum. The gum-benjamin tree (Styrax benzoin) has been proposed as the most likely plant. The gum which exudes from this tree is still burned as incense in Roman Catholic and Mahommedan places of worship.

"Galbanum," Hebrew hhelbenah, was a resinous substance yielded by one of the umbelliferous family of plants. The Bubon galbanum of Linnæus has been by some identified with this plant. Others have held that it is to be ranked under the genus Ferula, along with the well known drug assafoetida (F. assafoetida), and with gum-ammoniac (F. ammonifera). Recently Dr. Lindley has given the name Opoidia galbanifera to a plant forwarded to him by Sir John M'Neil, as having been found growing in Persia, and as the vegetable which supplied the

Fig. 20.

galbanum of the ancients.

Galbanum (Bubon galbanum).

There seems to be little doubt that this yielded the Persian galbanum. From whatever source the gum was obtained, it did not yield a peculiarly fragrant perfume, but the contrary. There is, however, historical proof that both the Greeks and Romans used it for the same purpose as the Jews.

"Frankincense," Heb. levōnāh, is now known to have been obtained from a tree indigenous in Arabia and India, the Boswellia serrata, one of the myrrh-bearers. The frankincense named here is the pure gum, that, namely, supplied by the first incisions made in the bark of the tree. It is white, semi-transparent, and when dried, highly brittle. This

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