538 



RARE EVERGREEN TREES. 



all equally celebrated them. The Arabs of 

 all sects entertain a traditional veneration 

 for these trees. They attribute to them not 

 only a -vegetative power, which enables them 

 to live eternally, but also an intelligence, 

 which causes them to manifest signs of wis- 

 dom and foresight, similar to those of in- 

 stinct and reason in man. They are said 

 to understand the changes of seasons ; they 

 stir their vast branches as if they were 

 limbs; they spread out and contract their 

 boughs, inclining them towards heaven, or 

 towards earth, according as the snow pre- 

 pares to fall or to melt. These trees dimi- 

 nish in every succeeding age. Travellers 

 formerly counted 30 or 40 ; more recently 

 17 ; more recently still only 12 ; there are 

 now but 7. These however, from their size 

 and general appearance, may be fairly pre- 

 sumed to have existed in biblical times. 

 Around these ancient witnesses of ages long 

 since past, there still remains a grove of yel- 

 lower cedars, appearing to me to form a group 

 of 400 or 500 trees or shrubs. Every year, in 

 the month of June, the inhabitants of Bes- 

 chieria, of Eden, of Kanobin, and the other 

 neighboring valleys and villages, clamber 

 up to these cedars, and celebrate mass at 

 their feet. How many prayers have re- 

 sounded under these branches ; and what 

 more beautiful canopy for worship can 

 exist !" 



The trunks of the largest of these vene- 

 rable trees, measure from 30 to 40 feet in 

 circumference. The finest and most nume- 

 rous Cedars of Lebanon in the world, at the 

 present moment, however, are in Great 

 Britain. A people so fond of park scenery 

 as the English, could not but be early im- 

 pressed with the magnificence of this orien- 

 tal cedar. It was accordingly introduced 

 into England as early as 16S3, and the two 

 oldest trees on record there, are said to have 



been planted by Queen Elizabeth. The 

 Duke of Richmond of the year 1761, plant- 

 ed 1000 young Cedars of Lebanon ; and 

 nearly all the larger estates in England 

 boast their noble specimens of ihis tree at 

 the present day. The tallest specimen in 

 England, is that at StrathfieMsaye, the seat 

 of the Duke of Wellington, which is 108 

 feet high. Woburn Abbey boasts also many 

 superb specimens, varying from 60 to 90 feet 

 high, nine of which measure from 4 to 6 feet 

 each in the diameter of their trunks. But 

 the largest, and, according to Loudon, un- 

 questionably the handsomest cedar in Eng- 



Fig. 117. The Syon Cedar. 



land, is the magnificent specimen at Syon 

 House, the seat of the Duke of Northumber- 

 land. This tree is 72 feet high, the diameter 

 of its head 1 17 feet, and of the trunk 8 feet. 

 We give a miniature engraving of this tree 

 (fig. 117,) from the Arboretum Brittanicum, 

 and also of the tree diiFoxley, planted by Sir 

 Uvedale Price, (see Frontispiece), which is 

 50 feet high, with a trunk measuring 4 feet 

 in diameter. 



The finest specimen of this evergreen in 

 the United States, is that upon the grounds 

 of Thomas Ash, Esq., at Throg's Neck, 

 Westchester county, N. Y. We made a 

 hasty sketch of this tree in 1845, of which 

 the annexed engraving is a miniature. 

 (Fig. lis.) It is about 50 feet high, and 

 has, we learn, been planted over 40 years. 



