THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



Ce'drus Li'bani Barrel. 



The origin of the name Cedar is somewhat doubtful ; 

 but it is probably a Semitic word allied to the Arabic 

 " kedre," meaning "power." But, though so fre- 

 quently mentioned in the Bible, in classical writers, 

 and by early travellers, the tree itself was certainly 

 not brought to England before the latter part of the 

 seventeenth century. 



The genus Ce'drus is mainly distinguished from 

 the closely allied genus La'rix, the Larches, by its 

 leaves being evergreen, they being, as in that genus, 

 grouped in tufts, or " fascicled." The other leading 

 characteristics of the genus are the erect position of 

 its cones and the deciduous character of their scales. 



The Cedars are a very small group, only three 

 species being recognised, and these entirely confined 

 to the Old World ; but many other trees with some- 

 what similar wood are popularly known as Cedars in 

 many quarters of the globe. The three true Cedars 

 the Deodar (G Deoda'ra Loudon) of the Hima- 

 layas and Hindoo Koosh, the Lebanon Cedar (G Li- 

 bani Loudon), with its small-leaved variety in Cyprus, 

 and the Mount Atlas Cedar (G atlantica Manetti) 

 are so closely allied as to be by some regarded 

 as merely geographical races of one species. As all 

 three are now common in cultivation it will readily 

 be noticed that at different ages each kind nearly 



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