The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1895-05-29

aftertime it became the emblem of that
country, as may be seen in that medal OF
the Emperor Titus, with a captive woman
sitting under palm and the inscription
Judea capt." Sir Thos. Browne.] How
significant it is of the fallen condition of
the holy land, that Judea which Pliny char
acterized as PALMS inclyta," should now
be SO utterly deprived of this noble tree that
Stanley speaks of it as breaking the con-
tinuity of the Syrian landscape by the
rarity of its occurrence"
Being SO conspicuous an object in the
landscape of Palestine, it was to be ex-
pected we should encounter frequent men
ton Of the palm in scripture, and in
fact it ranks next in Importance to the
cedar OF Lebanon-its green and flourish
ing beauty is the favorite symbol of virtue
rewarded. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree; he shall grow like the
cedar in Lebanon" Il was exalted as a
palm tree in Engaddi."
The multitude that stood before the
throne, clothed in white robes, bore branches
of palm in their hands, and the description
of the tree of life in Revelation, (Which
bore twelve manner of fruits" and the
leaves of which we're 'for the healing Of
the nations, warrants us in supposing that
the palm tree was the type limited at in the
vision. The earliest Christian mosaics ex-
tant bear out this idea; as, for example,
those in the church of Cosmo and Damian
Ca. D. 536,) and in the oratory of St. John
Lateran "a. d. 642).
Thus, when the early Christians assumed
the palm, the classical emblem of victory
as 1.-The universal symbol of martyrdom,
they did not do so simply in obedience tt
the idea that the death of the martyr was
triumph of faith, but because they graspet
in those evergreen branches the still NOR
sublime idea of an Immediate connectio
with an immortal existence, through tn
tree of life
When in old pictures, we see the ange
descending with palm branch to the mar
| tyr to place it in his hands, it ~means no
only that he shall wave it in token of hi
triumph over the powers Of sin, but of hi
more conclusive victory over the enemy
death. Hence the great importance tina
has always been given to the palm in the
elaborate ceremonial of the earlier and late1
church. Hence the pilgrim to jerusalem
who by that supreme act of faith, wa
thought to have purchased final absolu
ton from all sins, was known as the Palmer
to distinguish him from the pilgrims merely
to Canterbury, Compostella, Rome anc
Loretto. Hence as the OVERLAPPING of super
stitious usage upon the original groundwork
of faith became thicker and thicker SO die
the mystic reverence for the palm increase
at the West, and where the legitimate in
fuence of the tree itself of course Coulc
not he felt-for its leaves had to be repre-
sented, in church ceremonials. by the cat
kins Of the willow, still called palms in
England, as in the monastic verse;
'Vlbescit balnaee como; '1~etnzus eIuS osanna
AudIt, Ch1TsIicoIo 0ocjfc1ante 11'O."
1t was made to become one of the woods
of the true cross which we're increased to
four in number for that purpose, and a very
lucrative trade in palm branches sprang up
between the merchants of the East and the