THE CEDAR OF ATLAS. COS 



The cedar of Atlas constitutes, if not a species, at least a distinct 

 variety from the cedar of Lebanon. The latter is now very rare on 

 the mountain which is regarded as its native habitat. The prophet 

 Ezekiel describes it in all its glory : "A cedar with fair branches, 

 and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature .... his 

 height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs 

 were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of the multi- 

 tude of waters, when he shot forth " (Ezek. xxxi. 3, 5). But those 

 immense green forests which once stood out in dark deep shadow 

 against the radiant sky are now reduced to a single scanty grove 

 a grove containing, according to Dr. Hooker, but four hundred 

 trees, and of these four hundred only twelve of the ancient majestic 

 race. They are situated high up on the western slope of the moun- 

 tain-range, two hours south-east from Tripoli, and at an elevation 

 above the sea-level of 6172 feet. Most of the Lebanon patriarchs 

 are about 50 feet in height, and of nearly the same girth. One, 

 however, measures 63 feet in circumference. 



The cedar was introduced into England towards the close of the 

 seventeenth century, and has become permanently naturalized. It is 

 even found in a nourishing condition as far north as Inverness. It 

 does not, however, attain such gigantic dimensions here as on the slopes 

 of Lebanon. There is one at Goodwood, in Sussex, 2 5 feet in circum- 

 ference ; and another at Peperharrow, in Surrey, 1 5 feet. In the Jardin 

 des Plantes a celebrated tree, whose terminal shoot was struck by a 

 chance shot during the siege of the Bastile, boasts of the following 

 proportions : Ten feet girth at three feet from the ground, and ten 

 feet and a half on a level with the soil. Its horizontal branches 

 extend fully forty-five to fifty feet in length, and cover, consequently, 

 a surface of upwards of 300 feet in circuit. 



If we would now pass in review the complete series of Zones of 

 Vegetation, it is to the north of Hindostan, in the Himalaya, or to 

 South America and the Cordillera of the Andes, that we must trans- 

 port ourselves. On the first steps, or lowest terraces, of these immense 

 chains, we shall see the tropical Flora revealing all its wealth and its 



