THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



became of them is not ascertainable. In reports of 

 his historic garden no mention is made of the Cedar 

 of Lebanon. 



Some 1,400 miles from the Cedar forests of Asia 

 Minor and separated by the whole breadth of the 

 Mediterranean Sea grows the Atlas Cedar (Cedrus 

 atlantica) . This forms the prevalent arboreous vege- 

 tation throughout the eastern province of Constan- 

 tine which borders on Tunis. It also abounds on the 

 eastern Atlas ranges according to Hooker. Henry, a 

 more recent visitor, states that "in Algeria this Cedar 

 forms a considerable number of isolated forests, none 

 of them of great extent, at altitudes between 4,000 

 and 6,900 feet." Likewise it grows on the mountains 

 in Morocco, but its distribution there is still not 

 properly known though it was in this country that 

 this Atlas Cedar was first discovered. Philip Barker 

 Webb visited Tangiers and Tetuan in the spring of 

 1827, and from a native obtained branches of a 

 Cedar which had been collected on the impenetrable 

 mountains of the province of El Rif where there were 

 said to be vast forests. Webb's specimens are pre- 

 served in the museum of the city of Florence, Italy. 



The Atlas Cedar differs from that of Lebanon in 

 having a perfectly erect, rigid leader, straight stiff 

 ends to the branches, all which in the Lebanon Cedar 

 droop more or less, shorter leaves and a smaller 



