I regret the neglect in not acceding to your request earlier, to give the particulars I promised upon this interesting subject. I may say that I had prepared an article on the subject, which proved too lengthy through my having dipped freely into some voluminous notes on funeral trees; this portion I have now considered to send you on some future occasion, which, if you think worthy of your columns, you can then print. The custom of planting an Acacia or sprig of that tree on a grave, amongst the Hebrews, arose from the following circumstances. According to the Jewish law, no dead bodies were allowed to be buried within the walls of their cities. The priests were forbidden to cross a grave, and the Jews always avoided doing so, from a fear or belief that some evil would happen; they therefore placed a branch or sprig of Acacia, to mark the spot where a dead body was interred, and as the species called A. nilotica, grew profusely about Jerusalem this plant was largely adopted, and is the true species required at the interment of a departed brother by the Freemasons, whose rites and cere, monies are of Hebraic origin.

This species of Acacia - which requires a warmer climate than our own for its cultivation - must not be confounded with the totally different Robinia Pseud-Acacia, an American plant, introduced into Europe some 250 years ago by M. Jean Robin, nurseryman to the King of France, after whom it was named Robinia. It must have been introduced about the same time into this country, as Parkinson mentions it growing in England in 1640. Evelyn speaks of it in 1662. A few years ago there was an ancient Robinia in the old arboretum at Kew which had attained a circumference of some 13 feet. The Acacia nilotica and its allied species, A. Arabica and A. Seyal produce the gum arabic of commerce. A. Seyal yielded the Shittah, or Shittim wood of the Bible used in the manufacture of the Ark of the Covenant, as well as the furniture for the Tabernacle. The name Acacia is derived from the Greek - a, negative; and kakos, evil, signifying free from evil, innocent or incorruptible, probably from the wood which was considered incorruptible.

Pliny describes it as incorruptible and durable in water, therefore useful for the sides of ships - "Quoniam incorrupta etiam, in aquis durat ob id utillissima navium costis." (Pliny, lib. xiii., cap. 9.) Another purpose to which for ages the Acacia was applied was making coffins in Eastern countries, ! especially for the kings of Egypt, and probably this was the same with Joseph, the first record extant of a body being placed in a coffin, or as an old Bible (a. D. 1580) in my possession, Genesis chap. 1 : v. 26, says : - "They embalmed him and put him in a chest in Egypt." - Gardeners' Chronicle.