Myrtle

(Is. 41:19 and others)—a beautiful, fragrant plant of the evergreen family. Myrtle groves still to this day adorn certain parts of Judea and Galilee; especially near Safed they sometimes reach a height of fifteen to twenty feet. They cover with their shade the whole country in the lower part of the valley of Antioch. The dark-green, as if polished, leaves of the myrtle trees, their aromatic fragrance, and their beautiful flowers were often used by the sacred writers as an emblem to signify the glory and prosperity of the Church of Christ.

Thus, for instance, Isaiah describes the planting of this plant in the wilderness as one of the blessings of God: “Instead of the thorn shall come up the myrtle tree,” he says (55:13). In the vision of the prophet Zechariah of the man upon a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees in a hollow, the Lord Himself with the heavenly host is understood (1:8). The Israelites were commanded that at the Feast of Tabernacles, in the days of Nehemiah, the sons of Israel should dwell in booths made of myrtle branches, palm branches, and other broad-leaved trees (Neh. 8:15).