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THE CEDAR OF LEBANON* 



By Mary Pkri.e Anderson 



Religion, poetry, and history have all united to make famous 

 the cedars of Mount Lebanon. Again and again they have been 

 visited by the pilgrim, by the distingiiished traveller, by the man 

 of science. Grave doubts exist, however, as to whether the tree 

 now known as the cedar of Lebanon, Ccdnis Libani Barr, is the 

 one so frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, for these 

 cedars occupy a lofty and isolated position. They are twenty 

 miles from the coast, in a rocky mountain valley at a height of 

 six thousand feet on the side of Mount Lebanon, and about four 

 thousand feet from its summit. Therefore they could have been 

 transported to Jerusalem only with the greatest difficulty and 

 expense. The wood, too, is inferior in color and durability to 

 the wood of the more common cypress and juniper, and it is 

 probable that one or the other of these more easily accessible 

 trees was used for building purposes in the days of Solomon. 



The botanical history of the cedar of Lebanon is less varied 

 than that of many humbler plants. Tournefort called it a larch ; 

 Linnaeus, a pine ; Poiret, a spruce. Dodonaeus named it Cedrus 

 magna, and in 1714, Barrelier gave the tree its present name of 

 Ce dries Libani. 



During the sixteenth century it became so much of a custom 

 to make a pilgrimage to the cedars of Mount Lebanon that it was 

 necessary to take steps for the preservation of the trees, for the 

 pious pilgrims carried away much wood for the construction of 

 crosses and tabernacles. In this the Maronites were more suc- 

 cessful than we of the present day in our efforts to preserve our 

 forests and native wild flowers. They issued an edict threaten- 

 ing excommunication to all who should injure the trees. Not 

 even a branch was allowed to be cut except once a year, when, on 

 the eve of the Transfiguration, a festival known as the Feast of 

 the Cedars was held, and an altar was built under one of the 

 largest and oldest of the trees. 



From the middle of the sixteenth century, we have the records 



* Illustrated with the aid of the McManes fund. 



