524 



CONIFER.E. 



the Cedar, and the Cedar wood, mentioned by many of 

 the ancient writers, referred exclusively to the Lebanon 

 species, we must believe that its distribution, at one period, 

 extended over countries where no trace of its having ex- 

 isted now remains, as Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, &c, are men- 

 tioned by Pliny and Theophrastus as native habitats of 

 the Cedrus ; but as it appears that several coniferous spe- 

 cies, particularly those belonging to genus juniperus and 

 cupressus, went by the common name of Cedrus, and several 

 of these were natives of the countries mentioned in their 

 writings, we may fairly infer that the Cedrus of the 

 ancients as frequently had reference to other conifers as 

 to the Lebanon species. It has also been described as 

 a native of Siberia and the Altaic Mountains, upon the 

 supposed authority of Pallas ; but this proves to have been 

 an error, originating in a mistake of the French translator 

 of the travels of that eminent naturalist and botanist, who, 

 meeting with the word Kedr, the Russian name for the 

 Pinus cembra, which is a native of Siberia, concluded that 

 it must mean Cedar, and so translated it. In the " Flora 

 Rossica 11 of Pallas, no mention whatever is made of the 

 Lebanon Cedar, but, as might be expected, the Pinus 

 cembra is included, and the habitats, &c, duly given. 



But although among the ancients several coniferte might 

 go under the common denomination of Cedrus, it is evident 

 that the Cedar proper was well known and recognized from 

 the earliest periods of history, the frequent allusions to it in 

 the Bible, and the descriptions there given of it in various 

 passages, being all remarkably expressive and characteristic 

 of its qualities ; thus, in the twenty-ninth psalm we have 

 one descriptive of its strength and power, where the in- 

 spired writer exclaims: — " The voice of the Lord breaketh 

 the Cedars ; yea, the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Le- 



