ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 29 



By the help of the Officials of the Natural History 

 Museum (Botany department) I have been able to 

 identify this fir tree with Pinus Bnitia of Boissier's 

 Flor. Orient, (vol. 5, p. 695). It is found in the 

 mountainous districts of Crete, Chios, Cilicia, Taurus, 

 Lebanon, Northern Persia, and as far as Afghanistan. 

 It is most likely to have been the one which was 

 common in the hilly countries of Assyria. A colored 

 drawing is given of P. Bnitia in the ' Flora Napolitana ' 

 of Tenore, pi. c.c. Boissier states that this pine is 

 near P. Halepensis, the only difference being that the 

 latter has more rigid leaves, and less pendulous cones. 



As delineated on the Monuments the tree was 

 evidently a true pine, and there can hardly be much 

 doubt that it was one of these two, and as P. Bnitia 

 ranges from Syria to Afghanistan it is more likely to 

 have been the one meant by the sculptor. Of course 

 the picture that the artist had in his mind's eye was 

 that of a young pine tree, with its symmetrical cande- 

 labrum-like branches, A pine tree of that age makes 

 a very pretty and ornamental object, and such as 

 would attract an artist's attention. 



There cannot be much doubt that in Assyrian times, 

 when the monarch set forth on a conquering expedi- 

 tion he took his court with him, which must have 

 included artists and poets, to chronicle the deeds of 

 the great man, and hand them down to posterit}'. 



