CEDAR OF LEBANON. 523 



erect, changing-, after fecundation, into oblong-ovate cones, 

 which, when matured, vary from about three to five inches 

 in length. In a young state, the cones are of a greyish 

 green, tinged with a pink bloom, which they lose as they 

 become ripe. The scales of the cones are very broad, with 

 truncated summits, thin in texture, and with the edges 

 slightly denticulated. At the base of each scale are two 

 seeds, triangular in shape, nearly enveloped, and surmounted 

 by a fine membranaceous wing, broadest on the upper 

 part. The cones remain attached to the trees for several 

 years, and the seeds are set free and distributed by the 

 scales gradually becoming loose and dropping from the 

 axis, which still remains fixed to the branch. The cones 

 abound with resin, which is frequently seen in drops exud- 

 ing from between the scales, or covering their exterior. 

 The Cedar rarely produces cones before it is twenty-five 

 or thirty years old, and Loudon mentions, that there are 

 trees at Whitton, Pepper-Harrow, &c, upwards of one 

 hundred years old, that have scarcely ever produced either 

 male or female catkins. 



The geographical distribution of the Cedar is not con- 

 fined, as many have supposed, to Lebanon itself, as, of 

 late years, it has been found occupying sites on several 

 mountains of the same group ; it has also been discovered 

 on Mount Atlas, and Loudon mentions that specimens of 

 cones, leaves, &c, have been received from Morocco, by 

 P. B.Webb, Esq., showing the probability " that the range 

 of the tree not only extends over the whole group of moun- 

 tains which is situated between Damascus and Tripoli, in 

 Syria, and which includes the Libanus and Mounts Ama- 

 nus and Taurus, of antiquity, and various others, but that 

 its distribution on the mountainous regions of the North 

 of Africa is extensive.'''' Indeed, if we are to suppose that 



