find, that Jacob sent laudanum to Pharaoh, Gen. xliii. 11, which was collected in the land of Gilead, whence the Israelites transported it to Egypt, Gen. xxvii. 25, and might leave some of it in Syria, as they passed that way. Not to mention that no ancient author speaks of the wood of aloe 37; Actius, Dioscorides, Paul Ægineta, Serapion, and some modern Arabians, having mentioned it first, who give that wood the name of agalloch, or xylaloe, that is, the wood of aloe, because it resembles the aloe in colour, or perhaps, because they could find no wood nearer the Arabic agalugen, or the Indian or Arabic ahala. However it be, it is certain that what we now call the wood of aloes comes from the Indies, the best sort from Sumatra and Malacca.

The Septuagint, Vulgate, Geneva version, and ours render ahalim by aloes, only in Prov. vii. 17; Psalm xlv. 9; and Cantic. iv. 14. But this is manifestly a mistake, and clearly destroys the sense of these texts. For, as Junius, Tremellius, Piscator, and Ursinus observe, aloes have a bad smell, and cannot enter among the perfumes which are mentioned in these places. But in abandoning this signification, Junius, Buxtorf, and others, seem not to have succeeded better in rendering it santal. For though the heart of several sorts of the santal yields an agreeable fragrance, yet this seems known (or rather used), only by the modern Arabians, who, in speaking of it, remark that it comes from the Indies.

The same difficulty may be brought against the opinion of those who are for rendering ahalim, by the wood of aloe, called agalloch or xylaloe. For suppose that Balaam should have meant trees, he must have spoken of such as were common in Syria and Arabia, whereas the agalloch comes from the East Indies, and from Taprobane: and Serapion formally denies, upon the testimony of Abahanifa an Arabian, that any of it grows in Arabia.

Nor is it probable that David or Solomon speak of this wood in the places cited out of their writings: for though it may be presumed that the fleet which Solomon sent to Ophir might bring some of this wood among other rarities, yet the books of the Psalms, of Proverbs, and of Songs, were composed before the setting out of that fleet. It may likewise be questioned, whether that fleet brought any of that wood to Judea, because it is so rare and precious, even in the Indies, that one pound of it costs as much as three hundred weight of the best frankincense; as Garsias declares. Nor yet is it to be supposed, though this wood had been common in Judea in David's aud Solomon's time, that they would have mixed it with myrrh and cinnamon; for the agalloch or Indian lign-aloe, is so odoriferous

37 See Garsius aromat. 1. i. c. 16. Bacchin. in Mathiolum. 1. i. Jul. Scal. 142, Exercit. sec. vi. Ursinus arboret. sac. c. iii. et 43, et hort. aromat. c. 2. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxvii. c. 4. Bochart, Canaan, I. i. c. 46.

and so agreeable, that it stands in no need of any composition to increase or moderate its perfume.

Yet there is another kind of wood, called the Syrian aloe, or of Rhodes, and of Candia, called otherwise aspalatha, which is a little shrub covered with prickles: of the wood of which, perfumers (having taken off the bark) make use to give a consistency to their perfumes, which otherwise would be too thin and liquid. Cassiodorus observes, that this is of a very sweet smell, and that in his time they burned it before the altars instead of frankincense. Levinus Lemnius says, that it resembles very much the agalloch, or Indian lign-aloe. All which considerations make it probable, that ahalim should have been rendered the aspalatha. See ALOE.

LIGURE. OS LESCHEM.

Occ. Exod. xxviii. 19; and xxxix. 12, only.

A precious stone of a deep red colour, with a considerable tinge of yellow. Theophrastus and Pliny describe it as resembling the carbuncle, of a brightness, sparkling like fire.

The generality of the Hebrew lexicographers, and most of the ancients, critics, and commentators, whom we find reckoned up in a very learned article upon the ligure, in Martinus' lexicon, suppose that to be the leschem; and the Septuagint, Josephus, and Jerom, so render it, and their authority is decisive.

LILY.

.SHUSHAN שושן

Occ. 1 Kings, vii. 19, 22, 26; 2 Chron. iv. 5; Cantic. ii. 2, 16; iv. 5; v. 13; vi. 2, 3; vii. 2; Hosea, xiv. 5. KPINON. Matth. vi. 28; and Luke, xii. 27.

A well known sweet and beautiful flower; which furnished Solomon with a variety of charming images in his Song, and with graceful ornaments in the fabric and furniture of the Temple. The title of some of the Psalms " upon Shushan or Shoshanim 38 " probably means no more than that the music of these sacred compositions was to be regulated by that of some odes, which were known by those names or appellations.

By "the lily of the valley," Cantic. ii. 2, we are not to understand the humble flower, generally so called with us, the lilium convallium, but the noble flower which ornaments our gardens, and which in Palestine grows wild in the fields, and especially in the valleys.

Pliny reckons the lily the next plant in excellency to the rose; and the gay Anacreon compares Venus to this flower. In the East, as with us, it is the emblem of purity and moral excellence. So the Persian poet, Sadi, compares an amiable youth to "the white lily in a bed of narcissuses," because he surpassed all the young shepherds in goodness 39.

38 Psalm xlv. lx. lxix. and 1xxx.

39 Forskal gives to the Arabic susann, the Linnæan name Pancratium, which is a kind of narcissus.

As in Cantic. v. 13, the lips are compared to the lily, Bishop Patrick supposes the lily here instanced to be the same which, on account of its deep red colour, is particularly called by Pliny "rubens lilium," and which he tells us was much esteemed in Syria.

Such may have been the lily mentioned in Matth. vi. 28-30, for the royal robes were purple. "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." So Luke, xii. 27. The scarcity of fuel in the east obliges the inhabitants to use, by turns, every kind of combustible matter. The withered stalks of herbs and flowers, the tendrils of the vine, the small branches of rosemary, and other plants are all used in heating their ovens and bagnios. We can easily recognise this practice in that remark of our Lord, Matth. vi. 50, " If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith!" The grass of the field, in this passage, evidently includes the lilies of which he had just been speaking, and by consequence herbs in general; and in this extensive sense the word xolos is not unfrequently taken. Those beautiful productions of nature, so richly arrayed, and so exquisitely perfumed, that the splendour even of Solomon is not to be compared to theirs, shall soon wither and decay, and be used as fuel. God has so adorned these flowers and plants of the field, which retain their beauty and vigour but for a few days, and are then applied to some of the meanest purposes of life: will he not much more take care of his servants who are so precious in his sight; and designed for such important services in the world? This passage is one of those of which Sir Thomas Brown says, "the variously interspersed expressions from plants and flowers elegantly advantage the significancy of the text."

Mr. Salt, in his voyage to Abyssinia, p. 419, says, "At a few miles from Adowa, we discovered a new and beautiful species of Amaryllis, which bore from ten to twelve spikes of bloom on each stem, as large as those of the "Belladonna," springing from one common receptacle. The general colour of the corolla was white, and every petal was marked with a single streak of bright purple down the middle. The flower was sweet scented, and its smell, though much more powerful, resembled that of the lily of the valley. This superb plant excited the admiration of the whole party; and it brought immediately to my recollection the beautiful comparison used on a particular occasion by our Saviour, "I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." And Sir J. E. Smith 40 observes, “ It is natural to presume the divine teacher,

40 Considerations respecting Cambridge, quoted in the Monthly Repository, for October, 1819. p. 607.

according to his usual custom, called the attention of his hearers to some object at hand; and as the fields of the Levant are overrun with the Amaryllis Lutea, whose golden lilaceous flowers in autumn afford one of the most brilliant and gorgeous objects in nature, the expression of Solomon in all his glory not being arrayed like one of these,' is peculiarly appropriate. I consider the feeling with which this was expressed as the highest honour ever done to the study of plants; and if my botanical conjecture be right, we learn a chronological fact respecting the season of the year when the Sermon on the Mount was delivered."

The lily is said to have been brought originally from Persia, whose chief city was called Shushan, and one of its provinces, Susiana, from the plenty of these beautiful flowers growing there naturally.

Souciet affirms, that the lily mentioned in Scripture is the Crown Imperial or Persian lily.

Mr. Beckmann 41 informs us, that "the roots of the magnificent Fritillaria Imperialis were about the middle of the sixteenth century brought from Persia to Constantinople, and were carried thence to the emperor's garden at Vienna, from whence they were dispersed all over Europe. This flower was first known by the Persian name tusac, until the Italians gave it that of Corona Imperiale42. I have somewhere read that it has been imagined that the figure of it is to be found represented on coins of Herod, and that on this account it has been considered as the lily so much celebrated in the Scripture."

It appears from Cantic. v. 13, that the lily there spoken of was red, and distilled a certain liquor. There are crown imperials with yellow flowers, but those with red are the most common; they are always bent downwards, and disposed in the manner of a crown at the extremity of the stem, which has a tuft of leaves at the top. At the bottom of each leaf of this flower is a certain roscid humour, appearing in the form of a pure drop of water. This is what the spouse in the song alludes to: "His lips are like lilies dropping sweet scented myrrh."

"Moisten'd with sweets and tinged with ruddy hue,
His lips are lilies dropping honey-dew."

LIME. T seed.

Occ. in Deut. xxvi. 2, 4; Isai. xxxii. 12; Amos, ii. 1.

A soft friable substance obtained by calcining or burning stones, shells, or the like. From Isai. xxxiii. 12, it appears that it was made in a kiln lighted with thorn bushes; and from Amos, ii. 1, that bones were sometimes calcined for lime. The use of it was for plaster, or cement; the first mention of which is in Deuteronomy, xxvii. where Moses directed the elders of the people, saying, "Keep all the commandments which I command

41 History of Inventions, V. iii. p. 5. 42 Clusius, Hist. Plant. i. p.

128.

you this day. And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord your God giveth you, that you shall set up great stones and plaster them with plaster; and shall write upon them all the words of this law, &c." Upon this passage the learned Michaelis 43 has the following

remarks.

"The book of the law, in order to render it the more sacred, was deposited beside the ark of the covenant. The guardians of the law, to whom was intrusted the duty of making faithful transcripts of it, were the priests. But Moses did not account even this precaution sufficient for the due preservation of his law in its original purity; for he commanded that it should besides be engraven on stones, and these stones kept on a mountain near Sichem, in order that a genuine exemplar of it might be transmitted even to latest generations.

"In his ordinance for this purpose there are one or two particulars that require illustration. He commanded that the stones should be coated over with lime; but this command would have been quite absurd, had his meaning only been that the laws should be cut through this coating; for after this unnecessary trouble, they could by no means have been thus perpetuated with such certainty, nor have nearly so long have resisted the effects of wind and weather, as if at once engraven in the stones themselves. Kennicott, in his second dissertation on the printed Hebrew text, p. 77, supposes that they might have been cut out of black marble, with the letters raised, and the hollow intervals between the black letters filled up with a body of white lime to render them more distinct and conspicuous. But even this would not have been a good plan for eternizing them; because lime cannot long withstand the weather, and whenever it began to fall off in any particular place, the raised characters would, by a variety of accidents, to which writing deeply engraved is not liable, soon be injured and become illegible. No one that wishes to write any thing in stone, that shall descend to the most remote periods of time, will ever think of giving a preference to characters thus in relief. And besides, Moses, if this was his meaning, has expressed himself very indistinctly; for he says not a word of the colour of the stone, on which, however, the whole idea turns.

"I rather suppose, therefore, that Moses acted in this matter with the same view to future ages, as is related of Sostratus, the architect of the Pharos, who, while he cut the name of the then king of Egypt in the outer coat of lime, took care to engrave his own name secretly in the stone below, in order that it might come to light in after times, when the plaster with the king's 43 Commentaries on the Laws of Moses;" translated by Dr. Smith, V. i. p. 356.