30 MEMOIR OF DANIEL II ANBURY. 



small, pretty Crocus ; some Alsinese and Compositae. 

 No trees. Hanbury and Mr. G. Washington sketched 

 and planned the Cedars. "The largest is forty feet in 

 girth, and three others are also very large ; all the 

 largest are very old and branch from the very base. The 

 smallest are about twenty-seven inches in girth, which by 

 comparison of sections of older trees and rings would 

 make the youngest about fifty years old. All are of 

 much the same character ; are short-leaved, not glaucous, 

 dark green, and very horizontally branched. Several 

 trees stand well apart from the group." [Dr. H.] 



Two ascents of Lebanon were made, nor were the 

 travellers slow to admire the superb character of the 

 Baaibec. view obtained from the summit. Baalbec was the next 

 point of interest, and they camped in the hexagon of the 

 great temple. They were lost in astonishment at the 

 grandeur of the ruins, and the beauty of the moonlight- 



They gazed on the splendid purple of Lebanon in 

 the setting sun, and the orange of Anti-Lebanon 

 " splendid/' Dr. Hooker remarks, " in spite of Turks and 

 Damascus, earthquakes." And now Damascus burst upon the view. 

 What can be said in new coined language of the magni- 

 ficence of its panorama ; or of the beauty and lovely 

 situation of the city ? Immense valleys, rich, bright 

 green trees, mulberries, figs, walnuts, aspens, poplars, 

 vines, and cypresses. Under such circumstances it is 

 difficult to avoid turning poet as well as a botanist. The 

 city forms a winding stream of clay-coloured houses 

 meandering through the velvet green, the lights and 

 shades of which are admirable. Yet the city itself has 

 no recommendation but its site : the lanes were very 

 bad, and there were loads of Turkish soldiers every- 

 where. The two companions entered by low gates of 



