172 HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CELEBRATED TREES. [July 



accounts have been given as to tlic number of these cedars. In 1550, 

 Peter Jjelon counted 28. In IGOO, Litgow found twenty- four. In 

 1650, Le Gouz reports that only twenty-two were left. In 1696, 

 Maundrell reduces them to sixteen; and in 1787, Labillardiere states 

 that seven were all that had escaped the ravages of time ; and since 

 that time De Candolle states that all the elder trees have been de- 

 stroyed. It is difficult to say what could have originated such an idea 

 in De Candollc's mind, for it does not apjiear that any of those vener- 

 able treasures of antiquity are really missing. William Biddulph, w^ho 

 was on the spot near the end of the sixteenth century, says : " From 

 Eden we rode ten miles farther up the mountain to see certain 

 cedar trees, when we saw four -and -twenty cedar trees growing 

 together as big as the greatest oaks, with divers roM's of branches 

 over one another, stretching straight out, as though they were kept 

 by art. Although we read of great store of cedars which have 

 grown in Mount Lybanus, yet now there are very few, for we saw 

 none hut these four-and-tivcnty, neither heard we of any more save 

 in one place more." At that time, then, there were but twenty-four 

 cedar trees in all — not twenty-four larger ones only, but twenty-four 

 were all he saw, whether young or old. Now Burckliardt was there 

 in 1808 or 1809, and according to his statement published in 1810, 

 there were eleven or twelve of the oldest and best-looking trees, 

 twenty-five very large ones, about fifty of middling size, and more 

 than 300 smaller or younger ones. "The oldest trees (says 

 he) are distinguished by foliage and small branches at the top only, 

 and by four, five, or even seven trunks springing from one base ; 

 the branches and foliage of the others lower, but I saw none whose 

 leaves touched the ground like those in Kew Gardens. The trunks 

 of the old trees are covered with the names of travellers and other 

 persons who have visited them. I saw a date of the seventeenth 

 century. The trunks of the oldest trees seem to be quite dead ; 

 the wood is of a grey tint." Dr. Eichardson also, a modern traveller, 

 has supplied us with information respecting these trees, and as his 

 description is best calculated to give a general description of the 

 whole scene, I shall make no apology for laying it before you : 

 "The descent from the higher summit of Lebanon is rather 

 precipitous, and winds by a long circuitous direction down the side 

 of the mountain. In a few minutes we came in sight of the far- 

 famed cedars that lay before us on our right. At first they appeared 

 like a dark spot on the base of the mountain, and afterwards like a 

 clump of dwarfish shrubs that possessed neither dignity nor beauty, 

 nor anything to entitle them to a visit but the name. In about an 

 hour and a half we reached them. They are large, and tall, and 

 beautiful, the most picturesque productions of the vegetable creation 



