3. D. HOOKER ON THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 17 



variety of Libcrni, aud C. Deodara a different species ; habit having 

 been relied upon exclusively, and botanical characters neglected ; for 

 a glance at the drawings shows that there is an obvious and marked 

 difference, in the latter respect, between the common states of At? antica 

 and Libani, and non-e between Atlantica and Deodara. This is perplex- 

 ing, for, as I have said above, G. Libani holds an intermediate position, 

 both geographieaEy and in characters of foliage, between the two that 

 agree in the most important characters : and fiu-ther, we can account, in 

 a great measure, for the differences of habit, by the climate of the three 

 localities ; the most sparse, weeping, long- leaved Cedar is from the 

 most humid region, the Himalaya ; whilst the plant of most rigid and 

 otherwise opposite habit, corresponds wdth the climate of the country 

 mider the intiuence of the great Sahara desert. No course remains, 

 then, but to regard all as species, or all as varieties, or the Deodara 

 and Atlantica as varieties of one species, and Libani as another. 

 The hitherto adopted and only alternative, of regarding Libani and 

 Atlantica as varieties, and Deodara as a species, must be given up. 



I have dwelt thus at lengtli upon the value of the characters 

 separating the three Cedars, because the question, whether these are 

 one species or three, stands at the threshold of all inquiry into the early 

 history of the plant. My ovru impression is, that tliey should be 

 regarded as three well-marked forms, which are usually very distinct, 

 but which often graduate into one another, not as colours do by blend- 

 ing ; but as members of a fomily do^ by the presence in each of some 

 characters common to most of the others, and wliich do not interfere 

 with or obliterate all the individual features of their possessor. 

 Moreover, I regard them as in so far permanently distinct plants, 

 tliat though all sprang from one parent, none of them will ever 

 assume all the characters either of that extinct parent or of the other 

 two forms. There will, in short, be no absolute reversion amongst 

 these. Each ^oll yield varieties after its own kind, retaining some of the 

 characters of their progenitors, and assuming others foreign to them 

 all ; and it will depend on their relative success in the struggle for 

 life in a wild state, and upon the wants of man in a cultivated one, 

 which of these shall be preserved, and for how long. Grrautiiig, then, 

 that all are sprmig from one, how does it happen that they ai'e now 

 so sundered geographically ? 



The discovery of the moraines of the Lebanon requires us to ex- 

 tend the influence of the glacial period into a lower western latitude 

 than it has been heretofore proved to have reached. When perpe- 

 tual snows covered the great axis of the Lebanon, and fed glaciers 

 which rolled 4000 feet dovm its valleys, de])ositiug the moraines 

 to which the Cedars in the Kedisha valley are now confined, the climate 

 of Syria must have been many degrees colder than now ; the position 

 of the Cedars fully 4000 feet lower, and the atmosphere greatly more 

 humid. Arguing from analogy, it is reasonable to infer fchat, at such 

 a time, the Cedars formed as broad a belt on the Lebanon, as they now 

 do on the Himalaya and in Algeria, and were continuous with those 



N. II. 11.— 1862. C 



