CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PINE.

89

expression, says Mr. Ruskin, it forms the softest of all forest scenery; for other trees show their trunks and twisting boughs; but the pine, growing either in luxuriant mass or in happy isolation, allows no branch to be seen. And not only is it softer, but in a certain sense it is far more cheerful than other foliage, because it throws only a pyramidal shadow. Lowland forest arches overhead, and checkers the ground with darkness; but the pine, growing in scattered groups, leaves the glades between emeraldbright. Its gloom is all its own; harrowing into the sky, it lets the sunshine strike down to the dew.

God be praised, thankfully and reverently, for the tree and the forest!

VIL-TREES USEFUL TO MAN.

"Those groups of lovely date-trees bending
Languidly their leaf-crowned heads,
Like youthful maids, when sleep descending,
Warns them to their silken beds."

MOORE.

N the book of travels of a recent writer,* I find the following description of a landscape on the

Nile :

He describes it as unable to bear the test of comparison with some of our English and Scottish scenery, or with that of Switzerland and Norway, Italy and Spain, France and Germany; yet as beautiful in itself, beautiful with a peculiar beauty. For though the strips of cultivated land, and the wider plains, are necessarily flat, seeing that they are annually inundated by the river, yet they are always backed by the red or yellow rocks of the desert; and these rocks, though rarely bold or grand, form a most picturesque background to our view, and from the contrast which their barren glowing heights present to the rich green of the alluvial soil, so marvellous in its fertility, stand out as broad gilt frames to relieve the colours of our picture, or as deep gold settings to enhance the brilliancy of our

* Rev. A. C. Smith, "The Nile and its Banks."

jewels.

A SCENE ON THE NILE.

91

Then the broad stream of the old historic river is in itself a noble sight; the palm-trees with which its banks are often lined, and the villages clustering beneath them; the ruins of vast temples, which here and there stand out on the very verge of the desert; and the mighty pyramids, which are conspicuous in certain districts, combine to form a picture of strange and delightful charm.

The palm, which in this and similar landscapes plays so conspicuous a part, holds in the countries of the East a position not unlike that which in colder climes is oc

* Order, Palmacea.

92

UTILITIES OF THE PALM.

cupied by the pine. In the gardens of Egypt it forms one of their most graceful and usual ornaments. No other tree, indeed, is so well adapted to the conditions of soil and temperature, and the alternations of long periods of drought and moisture, which it has to undergo. No other tree could so conveniently minister to the wants of the inhabitants of those regions, where man, enervated and enfeebled by the influence of a burning sun and a scorching sky, is both unable and unwilling to labour strenuously for his maintenance. The denizen of a colder country is compelled to seek, from many different sources, the supply of his needs. His food he finds in the cereal grasses; his beverage in the "bearded barley," the tea of China, or the coffee of Demarara; his houses he builds of larch, and fir, and cedar; his ships of oak; he weaves his. clothing with the products of the flax or the cotton plant; he makes his last home and habitation of elm. But the Egyptian fellah or Nubian peasant can satisfy his wants as well as his desires with one all-abounding and all-providing tree. The date palm yields him wine and oil and vinegar, farinaceous food and sugar, timber and ropes, mats and paper. The South Sea Islander is equally fortunate in the cocoa-nut palm, the graceful ornament and inexhaustible wealth of those fair coral isles which gem the bosom of the Pacific. It provides him with a grateful shade from the vertical sun; he builds his hut with its timber, and thatches the roof with its leaves. The cut sheath of the flowers distils a sweet liquid, which, by fermentation, speedily becomes the refreshing palm wine, so grateful and wholesome in a hot climate. From this liquor sugar is obtained by boiling, or vinegar, if it be exposed to

the air for a sufficiently long period. The nut is valuable as food, and indeed is the Polynesian's staff of life; it also supplies an oil, equal to that of almonds, which is extensively used in India. The strong fibrous husk is employed for numerous domestic purposes, and the shell itself for cups and goblets.*

But more the palm also furnishes the islander with images of grace and loveliness, and, not to be too fanciful, with a music which may well awaken in the mind a responsive melody. The giddy mountain-heights of Tahiti, for instance, are adorned with vaporous arcades, through which the rays of sunshine glide like spirits. A solemn silence reigns among them, until, towards noon, the

* Humboldt.