THE PINE SUB-FAMILY. 



229 



now be found in great numbers. Michaux says : " Modern 

 travellers, and among others Mr. Labillardiere, who visited 

 that part of the East in 1788, inform, us that the large for- 

 ests seen by Belon, in 1550, upon Mount Aman, have dis- 

 appeared, and that a few of these trees only are found 

 upon the highest, where they grow immediately below 

 the snow which caps the summit during a great part of 

 the year. He computes their number at about 100, of 

 which he observed seven of extraordinary size, and meas- 

 ured one that was 30 feet in cir- 

 cumference, with the primary 

 limbs 9 or 10 inches in diameter. 

 Standing alone, and enjoying the 

 free access of the light and air, 

 they were less remarkable for 

 stature than for expansion. In 

 massive forests they probably ob- 

 tain a height proportioned to their 

 diameter; but this tree has al- 

 ways been remarked for the length 

 of its limbs, as is shown by the 

 allusion of the Hebrew poet: 

 'They shall spread out their 

 branches like the Cedar.' " 



J. J. Smith, Esq., in a note to the above remarks, says : 

 " M. Laure, an officer of the French marine, who, with the 

 Prince de Joinville, visited Mount Lebanon in 1836, says 

 that all but one of the sixteen old Cedars mentioned by 

 Belon in 1550, and by Maundrell in 1696, were still alive, 

 although in a decaying state, and that one of the health- 

 iest, but perhaps the smallest trunks, measured 36 English 

 feet in circumference." 



According to Michaux, " The few remaining stocks on 

 Mount Lebanon are preserved with religious veneration by 

 the Christians of that country. According to the mission- 

 aries in the East, the Patriarch of the Maronite Christians, 



Fig. 26. CONE OP CEDRUS 

 LIBANI, ONE-HALF SIZE. 



