302 



CHAPTEE XII. 



CONCLUSION. 



AMONGST the names of celebrated planters and 

 writers on trees and shrubs may be mentioned the 

 following, and it is very remarkable how many there 

 are of the Christian name John. I have noted the 

 following, and doubtless there are many others if only 

 known : 



The oldest and first -mentioned forester in the 

 world was ASAPH, who lived 2332 years ago 

 (Nehemiah ii. 8) ; and it would have been well for 

 the land of Palestine if his posterity had followed 

 the same occupation with greater fidelity, which they 

 unfortunately did not for it is very evident that the 

 destruction of the royal forests of Lebanon, and the 

 private forests of Hareth (1 Samuel xxii. 5), Eph- 

 raim (Joshua xvii. 18), Bethel (2 Kings ii. 24), Car- 

 mel (2 Kings xix. 23), the forest or wood of Ephraim 

 (2 Samuel xviii. 6), the forest of Arabia (Isaiah xxi. 

 13), and all over the Holy Land, was very greatly the 

 cause of its sterility and present barren condition. 



Eev. W. M. Thomson, in his ' Land and the Book/ 

 speaking of the Cedars of Lebanon, says : " The plat- 

 form where the cedars stand is more than 6000 feet 



