410 THE CEDAE OF LEBANON. 



Manna of Briangon, from tlie name of the place where it 

 is collected. 



THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



Cedrus libani. 



SIaxy years ago a Frenchman who was travelling in 

 the Holy Land, found a little seedling among the Cedars 

 of Lebanon, which he longed to bring away as a memorial 

 of his travels. He took it up tenderly, with all the 

 earth about its little roots, and, for want of a better 

 flower-pot, planted it carefully in his hat, and there he 

 kept it and tended it. 



The voyage home was rough and tempestuous, and so 

 much longer than usual, that the supply of fresh water 

 in the ship fell short, and they were obliged to measure 

 it out most carefully to each person. The captain was 

 allowed two glasses a day ; the sailors who had the work 

 of the ship on their hands, one glass each ; and the poor 

 passengers but half a glass. In such a scarcity you may 

 suppose the poor Cedar had no allowance at all. But oiir 

 friend the traveller felt for it as his child, and each day 

 shared with it his small half glass of precious water ; and 

 so it was, that when the vessel arrived at the port, the 

 traveller had drunk so little water that he was almost 

 dying, and the young Cedar so much that, behold, it was 

 a noble and fresh little tree, six inches high ! 



At the Custom-house the officers, who are always 

 suspicious of smuggling, wished to empty the hat, for 

 they would not believe but that something more valuable 

 in their eyes lay hid beneath the moist mould. They 

 thought of lace or of diamonds, and began to thrust their 

 fingers into the soil. But our poor traveller implored 

 them so earnestly to spare his tree, and talked to them so 

 eloquently of all that we read in the Bible of the Cedar 



