2272 most remarkable tree was kindly presented to us by the proprietor, J. Gostling, Esq.; on a portion of which we made several experiments, which proved it to be very inferior in point of strength to the common English-grown Scotch pine, and the remainder we have had made into a table. The colour and the grain of the wood are precisely the same as those of a specimen accompanied by cones and leaves received by Mr. Lambert from Morocco. At St. Ann's Hill is a cedar planted by the Honourable Mrs. Fox, in 1794, which, in 1834, was 50 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 6 in., and of the head 72 ft. At Redleaf, near Penshurst, there are cedars which, in 1837, were 36 ft. high, and girted 4 ft. 6 in. at 3 ft. from the ground. These were raised from seeds exactly 20 years before, by the proprietor, W. Wells, Esq., who purchased the cone from which the seeds were taken in a London seed-shop in 1816. Another cedar at Redleaf, after being planted 27 years, when under 3 ft. high, is 52 ft. high, and 5 ft. 6 in. in circumference at 3 ft. from the ground. In Scotland and Ireland, in sheltered situations, and on good soil, the growth of the cedar is found to be nearly as rapid as that of the larch. When the leading shoot of the cedar is broken, it does not form another, and ceases to grow in height. The cedar in the Jardin des Plantes, which lost its leader at the commencement of the French revolution, has not increased in height since; but its branches have extended 45 ft. French (nearly 50 ft. English) on each side, giving a diameter to the head of nearly 100 ft. The Hammersmith Cedar. The most remarkable cedars in point of age, near London, are those in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, now in a state of rapid decay; and of which fig. 2270. is a portrait to the scale of 1 in. to 50 ft. There was till lately a 2273 fine old tree at Hammersmith, in the garden of a house which was formerly occupied by Bishop Atterbury, of which fig. 2272. is a portrait from an engraving by Strutt. There is a very old cedar at Enfield (fig. 2269.), by some supposed to be older than the Chelsea cedars. At Croome, in Worcestershire, there is a cedar remarkable for its magnitude, and the nakedness of its branches, of which fig. 2271. is a portrait reduced from a drawing kindly made for us by Miss Radcliffe of Worcester. The tallest cedar in the neighbourhood of London is one at Kenwood, figured in our last Volume, which is 95 ft. high; and the handsomest is one at Syon, also figured in our last Volume, and of which fig. 2268. is a portrait reduced to the same scale as the other figures of cedars here given. In Scotland, the largest cedars are at Hopetoun House, and in Dalkeith Park; and there is a very handsome one, comparatively young, on the estate of Gray, in Forfarshire, of which fig. 2273. is a portrait, reduced from a drawing sent to us by Mr. Robertson, gardener to Earl Gray, at Kinfauns Castle. The largest cedars in Ireland are believed to be those at Castletown, the seat of Colonel Conolly; or at Mount Anville, the seat of Counsellor West. The Gray Cedar. Geography. The cedar of Lebanon is generally supposed to grow no where but on that mountain; but it was discovered, in 1832, on several mountains of the same group, by N. Bové, ex-director of agriculture of Ibraham Pacha, at Cairo. In passing from Sakhléhé to Der-el-Khamer, on the afternoon of October 11., M. Bové passed through a valley, the right side of which was bounded by a mountain, and on its summit some thousands of cedars of Lebanon were growing, covered with catkins. "These trees," he says, "are from 3 ft. to 16 ft. French, in circumference, and their height exceeds 50 ft. French. I suppose," he adds, "that they owe their preservation to their being situated on a mountain difficult of access, and at a distance from towns where their wood could be used, and to which from their present habitat, it could now be only transported on the backs of animals." (Ann. Scien. Nat., 2. s., vol. i. p. 235.) The cedar has also been lately discovered on Mount Atlas, whence cones, and specimens of the branches, leaves, and wood, have been sent by Mr. Drummond Hay, the British consul at Tangier, to Mr. Lambert; and specimens have also been received from Morocco by P. B. Webb, Esq. The probability is, that the range of the tree not only extends over the whole of that group of mountains which is situated between Damascus and Tripoli in Syria, and which includes the Libanus and Mounts Amanus and Taurus of antiquity, and various other mountains, but that its distribution on the mountainous regions of the north of Africa is extensive; though of the botany of these latter regions scarcely anything is at present known. The ancient writers who mention the cedar state that it had many different habitats; and Theophrastus and Pliny make it a native of Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, &c.; but, as they included the junipers, and probably several other trees, under the general name of Cedrus, no reliance can be placed on their testimony. The cedar has been said by some authors, both Continental and British, to be a native of Mounts Amanus and Taurus, and of Siberia; but, though the first statement is probably true, the second, as will hereafter be shown, is decidedly erroneous. Loiseleur Deslongchamps in the Nouveau Du Hamel, and Baudrillart in the Dictionnaire des Eaux et Forêts, inform us that Belon found the cedar growing on Mount Amanus and Mount Taurus; and that Pallas states, in his Observations faites dans un Voyage, &c., that he found it in the countries between the Wolga and the Tobol, in Siberia, and on the Altaic Mountains, Baudrillart adding that he had been informed by a Russian officer in the administration of the forests, that the wood of the cedars found in Siberia was so soft and so brittle, as to be unfit for the construction of ships. Mr. Lambert also quotes Pallas, to prove that the cedar, in Siberia, does not thrive so well in dry as in moist ground. Belon, who wrote about 1550, mentions the cedar among the "singularities" observed by him during his travels in the East (see Les Observ., &c., p. 162. 166.); and states that it grows not only on Mount Libanus, "on which some remain even to this day, planted, as it is thought, by Solomon himself;' but also " on the mountains Taurus and Amanus, in cold stony places." He adds that the merchants of the factory of Tripoli, in Syria, told him that "the cedar grew on the declivity of Mount Lebanon next that city, and that the inhabitants of Syria made boats of it, for want of the pine tree." In Belon's treatise, De Arboribus Coniferis, published in 1553, the author says he was told that the cedar of Solomon is found on Mount Lebanon, and also on Amanus and Taurus, and on the mountains above Nicea; but nowhere in the Isle of Crete. He then mentions several kinds of juniper, all of which he calls cedars; and states it to be his opinion, that the great cedar of Mount Lebanon was not the wood used for building Solomon's temple. (p. iv.) In another page, after relating his visit to Mount Lebanon, he says, Right true and excellent are the trees of Mount Lebanon." He afterwards describes their appearance and mode of growth, adding: "The cedars that we saw on Amanus and Taurus were very similar to these. They grow in moist places, like those in which the spruce fir (picea, A'bies L.) delights; and they are also found in moist valleys:- Cedros quas in Amano et Tauro vidimus, eandem cum prædictis habere similitudinem comperimus. In humidis nati quemadmodum picea, oblectatur, atque etiam convalles humorem habentes sequi." He adds that these trees grow somewhat like the silver fir (abies, Picea L.), but have a portion of the trunk smooth (glabro), and unclothed. It is very probable, the trees found by Belon on Mounts Amanus and Taurus were not cedars of Lebanon, but the Pinus Cembra. With regard to the assertion, that Pallas found the cedar in Siberia, M. Delamarre, in his 66 "There appears Traité pratique de la Culture des Pins, p. 315., observes:to be an error in the statement that Pallas found the cedar in Siberia, and on the Altaic Mountains. M. Ferry, a literary man, who resided three years in Siberia, has published a paper in the Bibliothèque Physico-économique, in which he proves that the tree called by the French translator of Pallas's Travels the cedar, was, in fact, Pinus Cémbra; the Russian name for which is kedr. He adds, in confirmation of this, that Pallas, in his Flora Rossica, does not mention the cedar of Lebanon, though he speaks fully of P. Cémbra (Fl. Ross., p. 4.); stating that he found it both in forests by itself, and intermixed with other trees; and that it preferred cold moist places to dry ground. M. Ferry adds that Pallas, in his Travels, invariably calls the trees he mentions by their popular names in their native countries; and that the French translator, meeting with the word kedr in the German work, fancied that it must mean cedar, and translated it accordingly." M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps has also noticed this error in an article entitled Histoire du Cèdre du Liban, published in the Annales de l'Agric. Franç., for 1837, a copy of which we have received since this sheet was in type. History. The first account we have of the cedar of Lebanon is that contained in the Bible, where we are told that Moses commanded the lepers among the Israelites to make an offering of two sparrows, cedar wood, scarlet (that is a lock of wool twice dyed), and hyssop. (Levït., xiv. 4. 6.) The houses in which lepers had dwelt were purified in the same manner. (Ibid., 49, 51, and 52.) When Moses and Aaron were ordered to sacrifice a red heifer (Numbers, xix. 6.), they were also com. manded to throw cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet into the midst of the burning sacrifice; the ashes of which were gathered up to serve as a purification from sin. When Solomon rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem, he obtained permission from Hiram, king of Tyre, to cut down the cedar and fir necessary from Mount Lebanon; and for this purpose he sent fourscore thousand hewers to cut down the trees. There was also a palace built by Solomon, which was called the House of the Forest of Lebanon, from the great quantity of cedar used in its construction. Solomon is stated to have paid to Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of pure oil, annually, while the work was in progress; and, when it was completed, he ceded to him twenty villages in Galilee. In the Psalms, there are frequent allusions to the cedar:-"The righteous shall flourish like the palin tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon," "The hills were covered with its shadow, and the boughs thereof were like goodly cedars," &c. In the Book of Ezekiel is the following striking passage:-"Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with a shadowing shroud of a high stature; and his top was among thick boughs. The waters made him great; the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field, therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied; and his branches became long, because of the multitude of the waters where he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations." (Ezekiel, xxxi. 3, 4, 5, and 6.) Many other passages might be quoted, but these will suffice to show the very frequent allusions to the tree in Holy Writ. Some persons, however, suppose that the cedar of the Bible is not that of Mount Lebanon; as the wood of the latter, though slightly fragrant, is not durable, and the tree cannot be called very lofty. It is possible that the wood of old trees, growing in their native habitat, may be much harder, of finer grain, and consequently less liable to corrupt, than the timber of young trees grown rapidly in this country; and, though there is no tree now existing on Mount Lebanon, or elsewhere, of very lofty stature, the terms employed probably alluded rather to the grandeur and magnificence of the tree, than to its actual height. Some writers have supposed that the cedar of the Bible was a kind of juniper; others that it was the Cedrus Deodara; and some, that it might be the Thuja articulata; but the expres sion of the Psalmist, when, in allusion to the flourishing state of a people, he says, "they shall spread their branches like the cedar," seems clearly to allude to the cedar of Lebanon. In profane history, many writers mention the usefulness and durability of the cedar. Diodorus Siculus tells us that Sesostris the Great, king of Egypt, built a vessel of cedar, 280 cubits long, which was covered with gold both within and without. (Lib. i. § 2.) Theophrastus and Pliny say that the Egyptians used the cedar instead of the pine, which did not grow in their country (Theoph., lib. v. cap. 8.; Plin., lib. xvi. cap. 40.); and they are said to have used the extract of cedar, mixed with other drugs, to preserve their mummies. The largest cedar recorded in ancient history is one which was employed to make a galley for King Demetrius, which had eleven ranks of oars; but this tree, as it grew in the Isle of Cyprus, was probably the evergreen cypress: its length was 150 ft., and its thickness 18 ft. The Emperor Caligula had constructed of the wood of the cedar what he called Liburnian ships, of which the poops were enriched with precious stones, and the sails were of differ. ent colours; and which contained baths, and dining-rooms decorated with painting and carving. (Suet. in Caligula, cap. xxxvii.; Plin., lib. xiii. cap. 5.) The ancients considered the cedar as an incorruptible kind of wood, which would last for ever; and for this reason they made with it their temples, and the statues of their gods and kings. Virgil says,- "Quin etiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum "Before the gates, a venerable band, In cedar carved, the Latian monarchs stand." Æneid. vii. 177 Pitt's trans. According to Vitruvius (lib. iii. cap. 9.), the leaves of the papyrus, and other objects, were rubbed with the resin of the cedar, an oil, or juice, which he calls cedria, in order to preserve them from the worms; as, according to Pliny and others, it did the Egyptian mummies. (Plin., lib. xvi. cap. 11.; Diod. Sic., lib. i. §2.) Vitruvius also mentions the Juniperus Oxýcedrus, but clearly distinguishes it from the great cedar, which is supposed to be the cedar of Lebanon. The celebrated temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was accounted one of the seven wonders of the world, which took 220 years in building, and which was burned down to the ground the night Alexander the Great was born, was principally constructed of cedar. Pliny tells us of a temple of Apollo at Utica (the well-known city of that name in Africa), in which was found cedar timber that, though nearly 2000 years old, was perfectly sound. At Saguntum, in Spain, continues Pliny, was a temple consecrated to Diana, which was built 200 years before the destruction of Troy; and it contained a statue of the goddess formed of cedar, which had been formerly taken from the Island of Zacynthus (now called Zante) by the inhabitants, when they formed the colony of Saguntum. When the inhabitants of the city, after having endured a siege of eight months, destroyed themselves and their city by fire, this temple, standing in a valley beyond the walls, escaped; and the cedar image of the goddess was found by Hannibal, who would not suffer it to be injured by his soldiers. The books of Numa, which were preserved so many centuries, are said to have been smeared over with the cedria, or juice of cedar. According to Virgil, the ancients used it in their dwelling-houses, as well as for their temples. What proportion of the above history belongs to the cedar of Lebanon, and what belongs to other Coniferæ, it is impossible at this distance of time to determine. at a The modern history of the cedar of Lebanon is attended with much greater certainty. It may be said to commence with the revival of literature, as almost every modern traveller who has visited Syria has ascended Mount Lebanon, and recorded his visit. One of the first travellers who has given any particulars of Mount Lebanon is Belon, who travelled in Syria about 1550. About 16 miles from Tripoli, a city in Syria, he says, considerable height up the mountain, the traveller arrives at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which is situated in a valley. Thence, proceeding four miles farther up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars; the Maronites or the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and not on the top of the mountain; and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number, though it is difficult to count them, they being distant from each other a few paces. These the Archbishop of Damascus has endeavoured to prove to be the same that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quincunx manner, as they now stand. No other tree grows in the valley in which they are situated; and it is generally so covered with snow, as to be only accessible in summer." (De Arb., &c., p. 4.) About this period, paying a visit to the cedars of Mount Lebanon seems to have been considered as a kind of pilgrimage; and, as every visiter took away some of the wood of the trees, to make crosses and tabernacles, the patriarch of the Maronites, fearing that the trees would be destroyed, threatened excommunication to all those who should injure the cedars; and, at the same time, exhorted all Christians to preserve trees so celebrated in Holy Writ. The Maronites were only allowed to cut even the branches of these trees once a year; and that was, on the eve of the Transfiguration of our Saviour; which festival occurs in August, and consequently at a suitable period for visiting the mountain. On this festival, the Maronites and pilgrims repaired to Mount Lebanon, and, passing the night in the wood, regaled themselves on wine made from grapes grown on the mountain, and lighted their fires with branches cut from the cedars. They passed the night in dancing a kind of Pyrrhic dance, and in singing and regaling; and the following day the festival of the Transfiguration was held on the mountain, and the patriarch celebrated high mass on an altar built under one of the largest and oldest cedars. (Bel. in Arb. Con., &c.; and Lois. in N. Du Ham., v. p. 300.) Dr. Hunter, in his notes to Evelyn's Sylva, says, - "we are informed, from the Memoirs of the Missionaries in the Levant, that, upon the day of the Transfiguration, the patriarch of the Maronites (Christians inhabiting Mount Libanus), attended by a number of bishops, priests, and monks, and followed by five or six thousand of the religious from all parts, repairs to these cedars, and there celebrates the festival which is called the Feast of Cedars.' We are also told that the patriarch officiates pontifically on this solemn occasion; that his followers are particularly mindful of the Blessed Virgin on this day, because the Scripture compares her to the cedars of Lebanon; and that the same holy father threatens with ecclesiastical censure those who presume to hurt or diminish the cedars still remaining." (Hunter's Evelyn, ii. p. 5.) La Roque, in his Voyage de Syrie et du Mont Liban, in 1722, mentions this fête; and adds:-"The Maronites say that the snows no sooner begin to fall, than these cedars, whose boughs are now all so equal in extent that they appear to have been shorn, never fail to change their figure. The branches, which before spread themselves, rise insensibly, gathering together, it may be said, and turn their points upwards towards heaven, forming altogether a pyramid. It is nature, they say, that inspires this movement, and makes them assume a new shape, without which these trees could never sustain the immense weight of snow remaining for so long a time." (Voy., &c., as quoted in an able article on the cedar, in the Gent. Mag., 2d series, iv. p. 578.) Rauwolf, who visited the cedars in 1574, says that his party ascended the highest point of the mountain, "and saw nothing higher, but only a small hill before us, all covered with snow, at the bottom whereof the high cedar trees were standing. And, though this hill hath, in former ages, been quite covered with cedar trees, yet they are since so decreased, that I could tell no more but twenty-four, that stood round about in a circle; and two others, the branches whereof are quite decayed for age. I also went about in this place to look for some young ones, but could find none at all. These trees are green all the year long; have strong stems, that are several fathoms about; and are as high as our fir trees." (Itin., part ii. chap. xii.) Thévenot, a French traveller, who visited Mount Lebanon in 1655, makes the number of trees twenty-three; and alludes to a popular superstition, which appears to have been prevalent in his day, that "when the cedars of Mount Lebanon are counted several times, their number is found each time to vary." (Voy. du Levant, part i. p. 443., ed. 1664.) The Dutch traveller, Cornelius Bruyer, in his Voyage to the Levant, the English edition of which was published in 1702, appears firmly to believe in this superstition; and says it is impossible to count them. He, however, thought the number was about thirty-six. Maundrell, in his Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, in 1696, gives a more detailed account. After ascending the mountain for four hours and a half, he came to a small village called Eden; and in two hours and a half more, to the cedars. "These noble trees," he says, "grow amongst the snow, near the highest part of Libanus; and are remarkable, as well for their own age and largeness, as for the frequent allusions made to them in the Word of God. Here are some very old, and of a prodigious bulk; and others younger, of a smaller size. Of the former, I could reckon up only sixteen: the latter are very numerous. I measured one of the largest, and found it 12 yards 6 in. in girt, and yet sound; and 37 yards in the spread of its boughs. At about 5 or 6 yards from the ground, it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree." (Journ., &c., p. 142.) Miller, in the first edition of his Dictionary, art. Cedrus, states that a friend of his, who visited the trees in 1720, confirms this account, except that he found the spread of the largest tree to be 22 yards in diameter, instead of 37 yards in circumference. La Roque, who visited the cedars in 1722, says that he counted 20 large cedars, the largest of which had a trunk 19 ft. in circumference, and a head 120 ft. in circumference. (Voy., &c.) Dr. Pococke, who visited Syria in the years 1744 and 1745, has given us the following account of the state in which he found these celebrated trees:-" From the Convent of St. Sergius (Latin Carmelite friars), there is a gentle ascent, for about an hour, to a large plain between the highest parts of Mount Lebanon. Towards the north-east corner of it are the famous cedars of Lebanon: they form a grove about a mile in circumference, which consists of some large cedars that are near to one another, a great number of young cedars, and some pines. The great cedars, at some distance, look like very large spreading oaks: the bodies of the trees are short, dividing at bottom into three or four limbs, some of which, growing up together for about 10 ft., appear something like those Gothic columns which seem to be composed of several pillars: higher up they begin to spread horizontally. One that had the roundest body, though not the largest, measured 24 ft. in circumference; and another, with a sort of triple body, as described above, and of a triangular figure, measured 12ft. on each side. The young cedars are not easily known from pines: I observed they bear a greater quantity of fruit than the large ones. The wood does not differ from white deal in appearance, nor does it seem to be harder. It has a fine smell, but is not so fragrant as the juniper of America, which is commonly called cedar; and it also falls short of it in beauty. I took a piece of the wood from a great tree that was blown down by the wind, and left there to rot there are 15 large ones standing. The Christians of several denominations near this place come here to celebrate the festival of the Transfiguration, and have built altars against several of the large trees, where they administer the sacrament. These trees are about half a mile north of the road, to which we returned, and, from this plain on the mountains, ascended about three hours |