flowers are purple, and the root is for the most part forked. The fruit when ripe, in the beginning of May, is of the size and colour of a small apple, exceedingly ruddy, and of a most agreeable odour. In the roots of this plant, some resemblance has been fancied to a human figure, and many extraordinary properties are fabulously and superstitiously ascribed to it. It appears, however, to be of an exciting, intoxicating, and soporific nature, and that it is highly fragrant; that it is in perfection at the time of wheat harvest, and when the vines and pomegranates flower, viz. about the month of May. Reuben, the son of Leah, one of Jacob's wives, found some in the field, and brought them home to his mother. They were earnestly desired by her sister Rachel, and given by Leah as the price of her sharing the society of her husband, from which, as the least favoured wife, she appears to have been pretty much excluded.-What domestic misery must continually have arisen from a departure from the original institution of marriage, which restrained it to one husband and one wife!

In the figurative language of invitation and endearment between Christ and his church, the church is represented as describing the beauties of rural scenery, in order to invite the visits of her Lord. "The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my Beloved." Thus the most rich and fragrant productions of nature are made emble

matical of those graces in the church, which are the delight of her Lord.

The Gourd.

As several varieties of the cucumber and melon are now commonly cultivated among us under the name of Gourds, we think it right here to notice the plants bearing that name in scripture. The first

mention of gourds is in connexion with one of the miraculous acts of the prophet Elisha. During a severe dearth, when the sons of the prophets came to Elisha for instruction, he directed his servant to prepare for their refreshment a large vessel of herb pottage. Accordingly he went out into the fields to gather herbs, and "found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap-full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not." It is not very certain whether the plant here intended, bore a resemblance to the grape vine or the cucumber vine: some have supposed it to be a pernicious kind of grape; others have supposed it to be the fruit of the coloquinteda, a pulpy, fleshy fruit, used in medicine, and possessing cathartic properties to so powerful a degree, as to be exceedingly dangerous, even in small quantities, unless corrected by some other medicine. Whatever might be the precise nature of the plant in question, it was evidently of a very deadly nature, yet at the same time bearing a close resemblance to something innocent and nutritious. Whether by the taste, or by the effects

of the pottage, those who partook of it cried out to Elisha, that there was death in the pot. He was enabled, however, miraculously to destroy the pernicious qualities of the herb, by casting meal into the pot, after which the pottage was eaten with safety, 2 Kings iv. 38-41.

The other scripture reference to the gourd is in the history of the petulant prophet Jonah. When the people of Nineveh repented at his warning, and besought the Lord, the prophet became jealous for the honour of his word. He knew the tender mercies of a forgiving God, for he had himself remarkably experienced them; yet, strange to say, he was more concerned lest his word should fall to the ground unfulfilled, than it should prove efficacious in averting the judgment it threatened, by rousing the people to penitence and prayer. In a sullen and petulant mood, he retreated to the opposite banks of the Tigris, (on which the city was built,) to watch the event. There he was exposed to much personal inconvenience, both from the intense heat of the sun, and a vehement east wind. As a figurative reproof of his peevishness, God caused a gourd suddenly to spring up, which afforded him a seasonable shelter, and with which he was greatly delighted. But this unexpected favour was as suddenly and unexpectedly withdrawn; for God had prepared a worm, which smote the gourd, and it withered. On this, the prophet's discontent and irritation rose higher than ever, and he declared, even to his Ma

ker's face, that he did well to be angry, even unto death. The tender Father of mankind thus touchingly reproved his inconsistent servant, "Thou hast pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons, which cannot discern between their right hand and their left," (infants, innocents, the work of God's hands, and born for eternity,)" and also much cattle?"

Much controversy has been excited as to the precise nature of the plant which sheltered the impatient prophet, and the loss of which he so bitterly bewailed. So long ago as the days of Augustine and Jerome, these two good men differed so violently on the subject, that the one accused the other of heresy, for supposing that plant to be an ivy, which he doubted not was a cucumber gourd. Neither of these good men had seen the plant, and in all probability both were equally mistaken in their deci sions respecting it. It, however, teaches us the folly and impropriety of vehemently defending our own opinion in trifles, and giving hard names to those who differ from us. Where the fundamental truths of scripture are at stake, it becomes us "in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God will give them repentance, to the acknowledgment of the truth," 2 Tim. ii. 25. and in lesser things, in which difference of sentiment may

arise from the construction of an imperfectly known language, or from our scanty acquaintance with the customs referred to, or the precise occasion of a sentiment being expressed, it becomes us to be thankful that the vitals of religion are not at stake, and to exercise great modesty in expressing our own opinions, and great candour and meekness towards those of others.

It

In all probability the plant alluded to is the kiki of the Egyptians; called at Aleppo, the palma Christi. In Greece this plant springs spontaneously, without cultivation. It is very rapid in its growth, rising to the height and thickness of a tree, and having very large leaves, like those of vines, plantain, or palm trees, only much broader, smoother, and blacker; they are from a foot, to a foot and a half broad. bears a fruit, from which is expressed an oil used medicinally, and called castor oil: this is also, in the East, where it is abundant, much used for burning in lamps. The flowers and leaves of this plant, like all of rapid growth, wither very quickly. In fact, its longest duration is but about four months; and as we are expressly told, that "the Lord had prepared this gourd," we may conclude that it was an extraordinary one of its kind, remarkable for the extensive spread of its leaves, and the deep gloom of their shadow, and, after a short duration, as remarkable for the sudden withering of its leaves, and their total uselessness to the impatient prophet. This incident in the prophet's history strikingly teaches us not to