354 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



manner of the plates on the shell of a turtle, or the scales of a 

 Biiit of armour. 



The nut pine reaches to a considerable altitude ; its trunk, 

 when growing in favourable ground, shoots up straigMly. The 

 leaves (or fir-needles, as they are called) are remarkable for 

 their length, often reaching six inches from insertion to point. 

 The cone is not unfrequently six inches long, and heavy in pro- 

 portion. Pig. 7 represents one on a diminished scale, together 

 with the nut or kernel, b, and the covering scale, a, after removal 

 from the cone. Pine-nuts are sometimes to be met with in our 

 own fruit shops, but the trappers and explorers of the north- 

 west American territories often owe to the pinon, as it is termed 

 by them, a hearty meal, when without it they would have fared 

 but badly. Manna, too, is furnished by more than one member 

 of the family of conifers. The larch, which we described in our 

 last paper, produces a kind known as Manna brigantica ; whilst 

 the cedars of Lebanon (Pinus cedrus), which we shall describe 

 as we proceed, produce a kind of their own. It must, however, 

 be borne in mind that the manna produced by pines has nothing 

 in common with the resins exuded by them. The manna is 

 caused to flow by the diseased action set up in the tree from 

 the punctures made by an insect known as Coccus mannifarus, 

 whilst the turpentines or resins are merely the natural juices of 

 the tree, inspissated and hardened by exposure to air and sun. 

 The Canada balsam, so familiar to those who mount objects for 

 microscopical examination, is obtained from the balsam pine, 

 and is simply the juice of that tree. The Auricaria, imbricata, 

 or puzzle-monkey, as it is sometimes called, on account of the 

 roughness and sharpness of its spines, is common now in almost 

 all our ornamental grounds. The so-called " Aurucan region " 

 is the land from whence it comes. The district bordering the 

 Andes yields ample stores of excellent nuts, which are obtained 

 from this tree. It also yields a juice, or balsam, most valuable 

 for medicinal and art purposes. The " deodar," or C. devadara, 

 now common in England, is held as sacred in India, and is 

 esteemed as the tree of the gods. Its timber is most excellent 

 and durable, and the torches made from splinters of devadara 

 wood give forth a clear, powerful, and brilliant light, which 

 serves to scare off ferocious beasts of prey, and to light the 

 benighted traveller on his journey. 



The Lebanon cedar (P. cedrus) is rendered so familiar to us 

 by frequent references made to it in the Bible and the writings 

 of ancient authors, that an unusual degree of interest is attached 

 to it and its early history. The ancients appear to have set a 

 high value on this tree, and to have rendered it of great com- 

 mercial and social importance. Both Pliny and Vitruvius 

 speak of the use of cedar resin in the treatment of papyrus and 

 the embalming of Egyptian mummies. Diodorus Siculus informs 

 us that Sesostris the Great, king of Egypt, built a vessel of 

 cedar 280 cubits long, which was covered with gold both within 

 and without. Mention is frequently made by ancient writers of 

 cedars of great size, but the largest we find an account of is 

 one which was used to construct a galley for King Demetrius. 

 This was propelled by eleven ranks or " banks " of oars. The 

 length of this tree was 130 feet, and its girth 18 feet. Some 

 authors have questioned its being a true cedar, and have sug- 

 gested that it might have been a green cypress, but it is scarcely 

 probable that an error such as this could have been made con- 

 cerning a tree so highly esteemed and well known 



The Emperor Caligula, as most of our readers will be aware, 

 indulged in some most extraordinary freaks of luxurious fancy. 

 Amongst them we find that he had constructed from cedar- 

 wood certain magnificent vessels, which he called Liburnian 

 ships. The raised poops of these were decorated and enriched 

 with precious stones and gold. The sails were of different rich 

 colours, and the cabins were fitted up most luxuriously with 

 baths ; banqueting-rooms were also constructed, in which were 

 placed the most costly pictures and specimens of wood-carving. 

 One of the first writers of travels who gives any account of Mount 

 Lebanon and its cedars is Belon, who visited Syria about the 

 year 1550. He writes as follows : " About sixteen miles from 

 Tripoli, a city in Syria at a considerable height up the mountain, 

 the traveller arrives at the monastery of the Virgin Mary, which 

 is situated in a valley. Thence proceeding four miles further 

 ip the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars, the Maronites or 

 the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and 

 not at the top of the mountain, and they are supposed to be 

 twenty-eight in number, though it is difficult to count them, 



they being distant from each other a few paces. These the 

 Archbishop of Damascus has endeavoured to prove to be the 

 same that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quin- 

 cunx manner as they now stand. No other tree grows in the 

 valley in which they are situated, and it is generally so covered 

 with snow as to be only accessible in summer." It is curious to 

 observe how, as time passes onward, the faces of lands change ; 

 vast forests pass away, and a sterile waste takes their place. 



In Solomon's day Mount Lebanon must have possessed 

 immense forests of this timber, for when he erected the temple 

 of Jerusalem, we find that he obtained permission from Hiram, 

 king of Tyre, to cut down the cedar and fir necessary from the 

 forests of Mount Lebanon ; and that, to perform this duty, ho 

 dispatched fourscore thousand axe-men, or hewers of wood, to 

 fell the trees. We also read that there was a palace built by 

 Solomon which was called the " House of the Forest of Lebanon,' ' 

 from the immense quantity of cedar-wood used in its construc- 

 tion. Solomon is said to have paid to King Hiram twenty 

 thousand measures of pure oil annually while the work was in 

 progress, and at its completion he ceded to him twenty villages 

 in Galilee. 



Thus writes Churchill of the pride of Lebanon : 

 " The cedar whose top motes the highest cloud, 



Whilst liis old father Lebanon grows proud 



Of such a child, and his vast body, laid 



Out many a mile, enjoys the filial shade." 



The Lebanon cedar is now abundant in England, and a vast 

 number of extremely fine specimens are to be seen in the vicinity 

 of London. There appears some doubt, however, as to the exact 

 period at which it was first introduced into this country. 

 Differences of opinion have also arisen as to the person to 

 whom is due the honour of first giving the tree to England. 

 Lord Holland has given it as his opinion that it was first intro- 

 duced by his ancestor, Sir Stephen Fox ; but the weight of 

 evidence before us, collected from old records and rare MSS., is 

 decidedly in favour of Evelyn being the first who raised young 

 cedar plants from cone-seed in this country. In his curious and 

 valuable work on trees, we find the following remarks : " Tho 

 cedar is a beautiful and stately tree, clad in perpetual verdure, 

 that it grows even where the snow lies, as I am told, almost 

 half the year ; for so it does on the mountains of Lebanon, from 

 whence I have received cones and seed of those few remaining- 

 trees. Why, then, should it not thrive in old England ? I 

 know not, save for want of industry and trial." It is quite 

 clear that he succeeded in raising the seed he had sent him, a3 

 is shown by an extract from a letter written by him to the- 

 Royal Society, dated Sayes Court, Deptford, April 16, 1684. 

 " As to exotics," writes he, referring to the unusually rigid 

 winter which had just passed, "my cedars are, I think, dead." 

 This is no proof, however, that his fears were realised ; and aa 

 no statement is afterwards made regarding the loss of these 

 much-treasured little strangers, it is next to certain that they 

 escaped the effects of the frosts of 1683. The celebrated 

 Enfield cedar dates from about this time, and, without doubt, 

 was one of Evelyn's seedlings. The cedar was not introduced 

 into France until 1734, when Bernard do Jussieu took two 

 young trees from England on his return journey. One of 

 these was planted on a high mound in the Jardin des Plantes in 

 Paris, and the other, curiously enough, was entirely lost sight 

 of for a great number of years, when it was discovered growing- 

 in the grounds of the Chateau de Montigny, near Montereau, a, 

 small town about eighteen miles from Paris. 



The illustration Fig. 4 in page 265 represents the cone 

 of the Lebanon cedar, one of its scales, and the manner in 

 which it springs from the branch. Those of our readers -who 

 are desirous of separating the seed from the cedar cone, for 

 planting purposes, will do well to proceed as follows : -With a 

 medium-sized gimlet bore a hole evenly through the centre of 

 the cone, from stem attachment to crown ; then fit a wooden peg 

 tightly in the hole thus bored. Soak both cone and peg in 

 water for twelve hours ; tighten the peg, and the cone will open 

 freely, and yield up its seed. 



Handsome, picturesque, and surrounded with many historic 

 associations, the Lebanon cedar is a veritable pigmy when 

 placed in comparison with the mammoth trees found growing 1 

 in California. These forest giants were discovered in the year 

 1850 by a Mr. Whitehead, in a small tract situated about 

 ninety-seven miles from Sacramento city. Here, within a space 



