104 



When we turn to so-called secular writers, we find mention of a bridge over 

 the Euphrates built by Semiramis, in which cedar wood was largely used, and Mr. 

 Layard tells us that the remains of wood among the ruins of Nineveh are of cedar. 

 Pliny says of the cedar that it loves mountainous situations, that its durability is 

 very great, so that statues of deities were made of this material, and that the roofs 

 of certain well-known buildings were for this reason constructed of it, such as the 

 temple of Diana at Ephesus ; and a^ temple of Apollo at Utica, in which cedar 

 timber from Numidia was used, had lasted 1178 years. Vitruvius, speaking of 

 timber, mentions the cedar as yielding an oil which is capable of preserving from 

 decay the defects to which it is applied. 



These passages and instances, which are confirmed by many allusions in the 

 works of ancient poets, are quite enough to show the opinion generally entertained 

 in ancient times about the qualities of the cedar. Let us now consider the question 

 whether they are all to be attributed to one tree, and whether that tree was the 

 Cedar of Lebanon. But let me first say a few words about the tree itself, and its 

 various abodes. There is no doubt whatever of the present existence of it in 

 Lebanon. The cedar grove there consists of about 400 trees, of which 11 or 12 are 

 very large and of great age, twenty -five of a secondary size, and fifty of a third- 

 class in this respect. They stand in a depression of the mountain, near the sources 

 of the Khadisha, or Holy River, about 6,400 feet above the sea, and about 3,000 

 feet below the summit. The number of trees, especially of the older and larger ones, 

 is gradually diminishing, not only from inevitable age, but from the mischievous 

 depredations of relic-hunters, a race of whom I cannot speak without a respectful 

 abhorrence. The largest tree in 1836 measured 35ft. 9in. in circumference ; Dr. 

 Thomson in 1857 says '■ more than 41ft," and a writer of an article in the " Bible 

 Educator" says 47ft. It was then about 100ft. in heiglit. These venerable trees 

 are regarded with great reverence by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood ; a 

 chapel has of late years been erected at the spot, and mass is from time to time 

 celebrated there by the clergy from a neighbouring convent. Besides these trees 

 there are many other cedars in other parts of the Lebanon range, and the tree is 

 found in the Amanus range in Cilicia, and also in that of Atlas in Morocco, a fact 

 which confirms to some extent the statement of Pliny about Numidian cedar-wood. 



The cedar of Lebanon was introduced into this country about 1683, probably 

 by Evelyn, who mentions it in his Sylva with high recommendation, and among 

 those which were first planted are the trees still existing in the old "Physic 

 Garden " of Chelsea. In 1766 two of these were 12ft. 6in. in girth at two feet from 

 the ground ; in 1793 the same trees were only 12ft. lliin. in girth ; in 1834 they 

 were 15ft. in girth, and in 1844 they were fast falling into decay. You will 

 remember the Scriptural exjjression of "cedars by the waters," and also what I 

 just now said about the immediate neighbourhood of Lebanon trees to the sources 

 of the Holy River. The writer of the passage in the Book of Numbers was quite 

 right in his remark as to the love of the cedar for moisture. Up to 1766 the Chelsea 

 cedars grew thrivingly, but between that date and 1796 they only increased about 

 6 inches in girth. How was this ? Up to the former date there was a pond close 



