of the male flowers in his hand, which he scattered over those of the female tree. This was done while the dew was yet falling; and our enthusiastic naturalist regarded the sight as one of the most delightful in nature. He set sail from Damietta on the first of April, and in four days arrived at Jaffa in the Holy Land. Here he was entertained at a convent of Catholic monks, the principal of whom, a Spaniard by nation, was greatly scandalized at learning that motives foreign to devotion had directed his steps to Palestine. Next day, however, he escaped from their impertinent inquiries, and set out for Jerusalem. The country from Jaffa to Rama consists of a succession of small hills alternating with narrow vallies and wide plains, some cultivated, others barren. The soil was a light, reddish sand, and so filled with moles that there was scarcely a yard of ground in which there was not a mole hill. On arriving at Jerusalem he visited all the holy places usually shown to strangers, and then set out with the other pilgrims for Jericho and the Dead Sea. Descending along the banks of the Jordan, the waters of which he found very inferior to those of the Nile, he arrived on the barren shores of the Asphaltic Lake, consisting of a gray sandy clay, so extremely soft that their horses often sunk in it up to their knees. The whole plain was covered with salt like the soil of Egypt; and various kinds of plants and flowers were found growing on it. The apples of Sodom, those -Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye, were found in abundance near Jericho. This apple is the fruit of the solanum melongena of Linnæus; and is sometimes actually filled with dust or ashes. But this happens when the fruit has been attacked by the tenthredo insect, which, absorbing all the moisture of the pulp, converts the harder particles into dust, while the skin retains its form and colours. Having returned with the pilgrims to Jerusalem, he proceeded to visit the other sacred places celebrated in the New Testament, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Mount Tabor, on which last spot he observes he drank some excellent goat's milk. From thence he proceeded to the lake of Tiberias, where, to his great surprise, he found many of the fishes of the Nile. At Japhia, or Jaffa, a village near Nazareth, he found great quantities of the plant which he supposed to be the mandrake, or dudaim, of the Scriptures. The plant was not then in flower, nor could he procure an entire root for want of a mattock. It grows in great plenty throughout Gallilee, but is not found in Judea. The Arabs denominate it "Devil's Meat." From thence he descended to the sea-coast, visited the ruins of Tyre, and proceeded by night to Sidon. Here he found various objects highly interesting to a naturalist in the immense gardens of this city, from whence prodigious quantities of fruit are annually exported. The mulberry tree is found in great abundance in this part of the country, which has led the inhabitants to pay great attention to the rearing of silk-worms, which here, as at Nice, are hatched in little bags which the women wear in their bosoms by day, and at night place under their pillows. In botanizing among the neighbouring hills he was invited by a shepherd to share his dinner. It consisted of half-ripe ears of wheat roasted over the fire, a sort of food mentioned in the Scriptures, and warm milk. The practice of eating unripe corn in this manner likewise prevails in Egypt, where Turkey wheat and millet are substituted for the proper wheat. On the 23rd of May, 1751, he sailed from Sidon in a small French ship bound for Cyprus, and on the 28th cast anchor in the harbour of Larnaco. Though he visited this island with no intention of travelling in it, being once there he could not forbear making a few excursions into the interior, of which the first was to the mountain of Santa Croce, the loftiest in the country. In the rusty-coloured limestone rock which forms the basis of this mountain, are mines of lead, copper, and rock-crystal; which last, of which some fine specimens are found near the ancient Paphos, was at first mistaken for a diamond mine by the Turks. A few days after his return from Santa Croce, he visited Famagosta, once, when in possession of the Venetians, a splendid city, but now a heap of miserable ruins. From Cyprus he sailed to Rhodes and Scio, and thence to Smyrna, carrying along with him an incredible quantity of curiosities in the three kingdoms of nature, which he had collected in Egypt and the Levant. His sole desire now was to return by the first occasion which should present itself to Sweden; but his strength had been so much impaired by the fatigue of travelling, and the heats of Palestine, that he was constrained to defer his departure from Smyrna. His disorder, however, which was a confirmed consumption, proceeded rapidly; and although, as is usual with persons labouring under that disease, he continued to preserve hope to the last, his struggles were soon over. His death happened on the 9th of February, 1752, in a small country house in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. His friends in Sweden, by whom he was much beloved, were greatly afflicted at the news of his death; and to add to their sorrow they learned at the same time, that having during his residence in the East contracted a debt of one hundred and fifty pounds, his collections and papers had been seized by his creditors, who refused to give them up until the debt should be paid; and that thus his name and reputation seemed likely to perish with his body. Neither Linnæus, nor any other of Hasselquist's friends in Sweden, were able to raise this small sum; when the Queen, being informed of the circumstance, generously advanced the money from her own private purse; and therefore it is to the munificence of this lady that we owe one of the most curious books of travels of its kind that have ever appeared. In about a year after this, the collections and papers arrived at the palace of Drottningholm; and Linnæus, who was no novice in these matters, declares that he was exceedingly surprised at the number and variety of the curiosities, among which were the rarer plants of Anatolia, Egypt, Palestine, and Cyprus; stones and earths from the most remarkable places in Egypt and Palestine; the rarer fishes of the Nile, the serpents of Egypt, together with its more curious insects, drugs, mummies, Arabic manuscripts, &c. The editing of Hasselquist's manuscripts was confided to Linnæus himself, and unquestionably it could not have been entrusted to better hands. The work, in fact, remains, and will remain, a lasting monument of the superior talents of the traveller, and of the taste, munificence, and affection of his friends. 72 LADY WORTLEY MONTAGUE. Born, 1690.-Died, 1762. THIS lady, whose claims to be ranked among distinguished travellers none I think will be disposed to contest, was born in 1690, at Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire. Her maiden name was Mary Pierrepont, and she was the eldest daughter of Evelyn, Duke of Kingston, and Lady Mary Fielding, daughter of William, Earl of Denbigh. Having had the misfortune to lose her mother while yet only four years old, she was thrown at once among the other sex, and thus acquired from her earliest years those masculine tastes and habits which distinguished her during life, and infused into her writings that coarse, unfeminine energy, that cynical contempt of decorum, and bearded licence, if I may so express myself, which constitute her literary characteristics, and render her compositions different from those of every other woman. It was not the mere study of Latin, which the virtuous and judicious Fenelon considered highly beneficial to women, and which, at all events, may be regarded as a circumstance perfectly indifferent, that produced this undesirable effect; but an improper or careless choice of authors, operating upon a temperament peculiarly inflammable and inclining to voluptuousness. She acquired, we are told, the elements of the Greek, |