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it as they do honey, to dip their bread into. The manna is found only in years when copious rains have fallen; sometimes it is not produced at all. I obtained a small piece of last year's produce, at the convent; where having been kept in the cool shade of that place, it had become quite solid, and formed a small cake; it became soft when kept some time in the hand; if placed in the sun for five minutes it dissolved; but when restored to a cool place it became solid again in a quarter of an hour. Its colour is a dirty yellow; its taste is agreeable, somewhat aromatic, and as sweet as honey. If eaten in any considerable quantity, it is said to be slightly purgative. The quantity of manna collected at present, even in seasons when the most copious rains fall, is very trifling. It is entirely consumed among the Bedouins, who consider it the greatest dainty their country affords. The tamarisk abounds more in juices than any other tree of the desert, for it retains its vigour when every vegetable production around it is withered, and never loses its verdure till it dies."-BURCKHARDT's Syria, &c., pp. 600, 601.

The manna of the tamarisk "is found in the form of shining drops on the twigs and branches, from which it exudes in consequence of the puncture of an insect... It has the appearance of gum. "ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. i. p. 170.

The manna which is sold as a medicine in our shops is obtained from various kinds of ash-trees. There is a sweet sugary substance (the work of an insect) obtained from a dwarf kind of oak. This is called honey-dew, dropping on cloths spread beneath the trees, in the form of large crystal drops of dew.

Rauwolf describes a plant, armed with sharp thorns, and called camel's thorn, (because it furnishes food for camels in the desert,) from which very fine manna may be obtained. He says it has few leaves, and pink flowers, and is an ell in height. This manna-shrub is thought to be intended in two passages of Scripture, where our version reads nettle, viz. in Joв xxx. 7, and ZEPHANIAH ii. 9.

MILLET.

EZEKIEL iv. 9.

"Take thou also unto thee ..millet."

This grain is much cultivated in Palestine. The plant has a long reed-like stalk, and long soft leaves. The grain is much used, both for human food and for poultry, and cattle are fond of the straw.

"Some tracts were sown with millet, now a few weeks above the ground, and yielding a delightful refreshment to the eye by its beautiful green." ROBINSON.

"The grain most in use amongst the people of all classes, and upon which also animals are fed, is a species of millet called gussub. This grain is produced in great

quantities, and with scarcely any trouble. The poorer people will eat it raw or parched in the sun, and be satisfied without any other nourishment for several days together. Bruised, and steeped in water, it forms the travelling-stock of all pilgrims and soldiers. When

cleared of the husk, pounded, and made into a light paste, in which melted fat is mixed, it forms a favourite dish."-Discoveries in Africa.

"Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

Mint is so well known to us in England, that it needs no description; for even the poor cottager has his little bundle of dried mint, the flavour of which, in soup, or with lamb, is so much liked also by the rich.

MULBERRY.

2 SAM. v. 22-24.

"And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry-trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself.”

LUKE xvii. 6.

"If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this sycamine (purple mulberry) tree, Be thou plucked up, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you."

There are two sorts of mulberry, the white and the purple. The former is very inferior as a fruit to the purple; but the tree of the white mulberry is the handsomest, though it is constantly disfigured by being cut, in order to produce more leaves for feeding the silkworms. There are numerous mulberry groves in Palestine, and some of them are very pretty. In the mountains, they are planted on terraces, but in the plains they are set in rows, and the trees are topped every year. The juice of the purple mulberry is mixed with water, and sweet violets, and makes a very pleasant drink, and the bark of the tree was used in medicine.

These trees are very long-lived, and grow very slowly. James the First of England tried to introduce the white mulberry into our country, in order that we might have silk of our own; but he did not succeed in rearing them to perfection.

In the mulberry orchards the "trees are kept trimmed down very close, in order to make them put forth a greater quantity of leaves for the supply of the silkworms; but they thus come to have almost the character of dwarf trees, and contribute little to the beauty of the country, except by their verdure."-ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. iii. 431.

The country around Beirût is "covered with mulberry groves; the culture of silk being here the chief employment of all the inhabitants."-Ibid. 435.

Travellers speak of passing through mulberry gardens for miles.

"The mulberry tree," says Dr. Bowring, "flourishes admirably on the coast, and through the more fertile parts of the Lebanon range. The arrangement generally made with the peasantry, is to allow them onefourth of the silk for taking care of the worms, and reeling it off from the cocoons. The land-owner provides the leaves, which are gathered by the peasants. He also erects the sheds in which the cocoons are kept. They are simple barrache of reeds, without any roof, merely serving to shelter the worm from the inclemency of the weather, rain being little to be feared in the silkworm season, and a covering is easily found in case of need. The power of producing silk is very great, and a little more attention to its cultivation would render it in a few years, the principal article of export; articles of export being really the great desiderata for the extension of the Syrian trade."-Report on Syria, p. 14.

The same gentleman adds, "In Mount Lebanon almost every male inhabitant is a small proprietor of land. In the neighbourhood of Beyrout, there are also a great number of land-holders, who, for the most part,