Flax was also an early Plant, as may be illustrated from the neighbour Country of _Canaan_. For the Israelites kept the Passover in _Gilgal_ in the fourteenth day of the first Month, answering unto part of our _March_, having newly passed _Jordan_: And the Spies which were sent from _Shittim_ unto _Jericho_, not many days before, were hid by _Rahab_ under the stalks of Flax, which lay drying on the top of her House; which sheweth that the Flax was already and newly gathered. For this was the first preparation of Flax, and before fluviation or rotting, which, after _Pliny's_ account, was after Wheat Harvest. _But the Wheat and the Rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up._ The Original signifies that it was _hidden_, or _dark_, the Vulgar and Septuagint that it was _serotinous_ or _late_, and our old Translation that it was _late sown_. And so the expression and interposition of _Moses_, who well understood the Husbandry of _Ægypt_, might Emphatically declare the state of Wheat and Rye in that particular year; and if so, the same is solvable from the time of the floud of _Nilus_, and the measure of its inundation. For if it were very high, and over-drenching the ground, they were forced to later Seed-time; and so the Wheat and the Rye escaped; for they were more slowly growing Grains, and, by reason of the greater inundation of the River, were sown later than ordinary that year, especially in the Plains near the River, where the ground drieth latest. Some think the plagues of _Ægypt_ were acted in one Month, others but in the compass of twelve. In the delivery of Scripture there is no account, of what time of the year or particular Month they fell out; but the account of these grains, which were either smitten or escaped, make the plague of Hail to have probably hapned in _February_: This may be collected from the new and old account of the Seed time and Harvest in _Ægypt_. For, according to the account of _Radzevil_,[223] the river rising in _June_, and the Banks being cut in _September_, they sow about S. _Andrews_, when the Floud is retired, and the moderate driness of the ground permitteth. So that the Barley anticipating the Wheat, either in time of sowing or growing, might be in Ear in _February_. [223] Radzevil's _Travels_. The account of _Pliny_[224] is little different. They cast the Seed upon the Slime and Mudd when the River is down, which commonly happeneth in the beginning of _November_. They begin to reap and cut down a little before the Calends of _April_, about the middle of _March_, and in the Month of _May_ their Harvest is in. So that Barley anticipating Wheat, it might be in Ear in _February_, and Wheat not yet grown up, at least to the Spindle or Ear, to be destroyed by the Hail. For they cut down about the middle of _March_, at least their forward Corns, and in the Month of _May_ all sorts of Corns were in. [224] Plin. _lib. 18. cap. 18_.