i82 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 



name and sight as the Cedar of Lebanon, and thereby 

 rather intimating that some occult connection existed 

 between the first half of the tree's double name and 

 the Latin word liber (free) ; whereas the origin, in 

 reality, is to be found in that Greek word Xi^avo^, 

 which comes to refer to the incense used at religious 

 functions. The mountain chain after which the 

 tree was named had the same derivation as the Libo 

 in Libocedrus. The word '' cedar " is derived from the 

 Greek word /ceS/^o?, and KiBpo<; ( lexiconically speak- 

 ing) is translated as '* the cedar tree, the wood of 

 which was burnt for perfume or used to scent oint- 

 ment." 



Mt. Lebanon, from which our Cedar of that name 

 took its title, is called the White Mountain — it is 

 said, on account of the white resin of the coniferous 

 trees that bedeck the scene. The resin of certain 

 trees — not very easily distinguishable — ^was used as 

 a chief ingredient in the preparation of the frank- 

 incense used alike by pagans and true believers for 

 purposes of ritual or sacrificial fumigation. The 

 Libocedrus of the west, be it added, has no more a 

 monopoly of its production in the West than has any 

 one or particular Cedar or Conifer of it in the East. 

 The Cedar of Lebanon is not the tree from which an 

 idolatrous people probably extracted their resin to 

 transform into the incense they burnt ** upon the 

 hills, under the Oaks and Poplars and Elms," in the 

 days of the prophet Hosea. It may have been 

 equally or exclusively applied to some other Conifers — 

 the Roman Cypress, the Juniper, or Pinus Halepensis 

 — for all we know. Thus, although there is no 

 confusion of appearance as between Libocedrus and 

 Cedrus Libani, there is between them a certain 

 connection in the derivation of the names that have 

 been bestowed on them. The Libocedrus is known 

 colloquially by the name of Incense Cedar, and in 



