THE CHESNUT TREE.

It is difficult to conceive the reasons which induced the English translators to render the Hebrew aumuz chesnut tree.' It occurs only in Gen. xxx. 37, and Ezek. xxxi. 8: in both places the Vulgate understand the 'plane tree,' as do the LXX. in the former passage, but in the latter they have the 'fir.' The majority of interpreters concur with the Latin version, which is certainly very suitable to the sense of the passage in the prophet, which requires a tree possessing extensive branches, and producing a considerable shade; qualities for which the plane tree has ever been celebrated.

THE fig tree is very common in Palestine and the East, and it flourishes with the greatest luxuriance in those barren and stony situations where little else will grow.

Figs are of two sorts, the 'boccore,' and the 'kermouse.' The boccore, or early fig, is produced in June, though the kermouse, the fig properly so called, which is preserved, and made up into cakes, is rarely ripe before August. There is also a long dark colored kermouse, that sometimes hangs upon the trees all the winter. For these figs generally hang a long time upon the tree before they drop off; whereas the boccores drop as soon as they are ripe, and, according to the beautiful allusion of the prophet Nahum, 'fall into the mouth of the eater, upon being shaken,' ch. iii. 12. Dr. Shaw, to whom we are indebted for this information, remarks, that these trees do not properly blossom, or send out flowers, as we render Hab. iii. 17. They may rather be said to shoot out their

fruit, which they do, like so many little buttons, with their flowers, small and imperfect as they are, inclosed within them.

When this intelligent traveller visited Palestine, in the latter end of March, the boccore was far from being in a state of maturity; for, in the scripture expression, 'the time of figs was not yet' (Mark xi. 13,) or not till the middle or latter end of June. The. 'time' here mentioned, is supposed by some authors, to be the third year, in which the fruit of a particular kind of fig tree is said to come to perfection. But this species, if there be any such, needs to be further known and described, before any argument can be founded upon it. Dionysius Syrus, as he is translated by Dr. Loftus, is more to the purpose: 'it was not the time of figs,' he remarks, because it was the month Nisan, when trees yielded blossoms, and not fruit. It frequently happens in Barbary, however, and it need not be doubted in the warmer climate of Palestine, that, according to the quality of the preceding season, some of the more forward and vigorous trees will now and then yield a few ripe figs, six weeks or more before the full season. Something like this may be alluded to by the prophet Hosea, when he says he 'saw their fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time' (oh. ix. 10;) and by Isaiah, who, speaking of the beauty of Samaria, and her rapid declension, says, she 'shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which, when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up,' ch. xxviii. 4.

When the boccore draws near to perfection, then the kermouse, the summer fig, or carica, begin to be formed, though they rarely ripen before August; at which time there appears a third crop, or the winter fig, as it may be called. This is usually of a much longer shape and darker complexion than the kermouse, hanging and ripening on the tree, even after the leaves are shed; and, provided the winter prove mild and temperate, is gathered as a delicious morsel in the spring. We learn from Pliny, that the fig tree was bifera, or bore two crops of figs; namely, the boccore, as we may imagine, and the kermouse; though what he relates afterwards, should intimate that there was also a winter crop.

It is well known, that the fruit of these prolific trees always precedes the leaves; and consequently, when our Saviour saw one of them in full vigor having leaves (Mark xi. 13), he might, according to the common course of nature, very justly look for fruit;' and haply find some boccores, if not some winter figs, likewise, upon it. But the difficulties connected with the narration of this transaction, will not allow of its dismissal in this summary manner. We say, in the narration, for we apprehend that the remark of Dr. Shaw is quite satisfactory as to the reasonableness of our Lord's conduct on the occasion, notwithstanding the multiplied objections which ignorance and irreligion have urged against it.

We now look at the construction of the passage, which has occasioned so much embarrassment to commentators, and has given rise to more discussion, perhaps, than any other narrative in the New

Testament. In our translation, the passage stands thus, which is strictly according to the order of the words in the original text: 'And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he (Jesus) was hungry: and seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus said unto it, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever," Mark xi. 12-14. Here the whole difficulty results from the connexion of the two last clauses of the 13th verse: 'And when he came to it he found nothing but leaves-for the time of figs was not yet' for the declaration, that it was not yet fig harvest, cannot be (as the order of the words seem to import) the reason why there was nothing but leaves on the tree; because, as we have seen, the fig is of that tribe of vegetables on which the fruit appears before the leaf. Certainly, fruit, says Mr. Weston, might be expected of a tree whose leaves were distinguished afar off, and whose fruit, if it bore any, preceded the leaves. If the words had been, 'He found nothing but green figs, for it was not the time of ripe fruit,' says Campbell, we should have justly concluded that the latter clause was meant as the reason of what is affirmed in the former, but, as they stand, they do not admit this interpretation.

All will be clear, however, if we consider the former of these clauses as parenthetical, and admit such a sort of trajectio as is not unfrequent in the ancient languages, though in translating into modern ones a transposition ought to be adopted, to adapt such passages to the genius of those languages; and such is here employed by Dr. Campbell. The sense of the passage will then be as follows: 'He came to see if he might find anything thereon (for it was not yet the time to gather figs); but he found leaves only; and he said,' &c. Similar inversions and trajections have been pointed out by commentators in various other parts of the New and Old Testaments, and Campbell particularly notices one in this very gospel (ch. xvi. 3, 4): They said, Who shall roll us away the stone? and when they looked, the stone was rolled away, for it was very great'—that is, They said, who shall roll us away the stone, for it was very great,' &c.

The spiritual application of this transaction to the case of the Jews, is sufficiently obvious.

In the East, the fig tree grows to a considerable size; so large, indeed, as to afford the wearied traveller a convenient shelter from the rays of the sun. Hasselquist says, that when travelling from Tiberias to Nazareth, they refreshed themselves under the shade of one of these trees, under which was a well, where a shepherd and his herd had their rendezvous, but without either tent or hut. So Moryson, 'Coming to a little shade of fig trees, near Tripoli, in Syria, we rested there the heat of the day, and fed upon such victuals as we had.' These extracts will remind the scripture reader of 1 Kings iv. 25; Mic. iv. 4; Zech. iii. 10; and John i. 48, where the friendly shade of this tree is evidently referred to.

THE SYCAMORE

TREE.

THIS curious tree seems to partake of the nature of two distinct species, the mulberry and the fig, the former in its leaf, and the latter in its fruit. The Sycamore is thus described by Norden: 'I shall remark, that they have in Egypt divers sorts of figs; but if there is any difference between them, a particular kind differs still more. I mean that which the sycamore bears. It was upon a tree of this sort that Zaccheus got up, to see our Saviour pass through Jericho. This sycamore is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees. It has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs, in form of a grapestalk, at the end of which grows the fruit, close to one another, most like bunches of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons, for I have seen some sycamores which had fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs; but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgustful sweetness. Its color is a yellow, inclining to an okre, shadowed by a flesh color; in the inside it resembles the common fig, excepting that it has a blackish coloring, with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt. The people, for the greater part, live on its fruit.'

From 1 Kings x. 27; 1 Chron. xxvii. 28; and 2 Chron. i. 15, it is evident, that this tree was pretty common in Palestine, as well as in Egypt; and from its being joined with the vines in Psalm lxxviii, 47, as well as from the circumstance of David appointing a particular officer to superintend plantations of them, it seems to have been as much valued in ancient as it is in modern times. From Isa. ix. 10, we find that the timber of the sycamore was used in the construction of buildings; and, notwithstanding its porous and spongy appearance, it was, as we learn from Dr. Shaw, of extreme durability. Describing the catacombs and mummics of Egypt, this intelligent writer states that he found both the mummy chests, and the little square boxes, containing various figures, which are placed at the feet of each mummy, to be made of sycamore wood, and thus preserved entire and incorrupted for at least three thousand years.

In Amos vii. 14, there is a reference, no doubt, to the manner in which these trees are cultivated, by scraping or making incisions in the fruit.

In the passage above cited from Norden, that traveller adverts to the circumstance of Zaccheus climbing up into the sycamore for the purpose of witnessing our Lord pass through Jericho (Luke xix. 4); and Mr. Bloomfield remarks, that this mode of viewing an object seems to have been not unfrequent, insomuch that it appears to have given rise to a proverbial expression, which he cites from Libanius.

The sycamore strikes its large diverging roots deep into the soil;

and on this account, says Paxton, our Lord alludes to it as the most difficult to be rooted up and transferred to another situation. 'If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you,' Luke xvii 5. The extreme difficulty with which this tree is transferred from its native spot to another situation, give the words of our Lord a peculiar force and beauty. The stronger and more diverging the root of a tree, the more difficult it must be to pluck it up, and insert it again so as to make it strike root and grow; but far more difficult still to plant it in the sea, where the soil is so far below the surface, and where the restless billows are continually tossing it from one side to another; yet, says our Lord, a task no less difficult than this to be accomplished, can the man of genuine faith perform with a word; for with God nothing is impossible, nothing difficult or laborious. In the parallel passage (Matt, xvii. 20,) the hyperbole is varied, a mountain being substituted for the sycamore-tree. The passage is thus paraphrased by Rosenmuller: So long as you trust in God and me, and are not sufficient in self-reliance, you may accomplish the most arduous labors, undertaken for the purpose of furthering my religion,