526 CONIFERS. 



Virgil,* when describing the temple of the ancient Lau- 

 rentum, says : — 



" Quiri etiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum 

 Antiqua e Cedro." 



Pliny also makes mention of Cedar wood and the uses to 

 which it was applied, and cites, as examples of its dura- 

 bility and imperishable nature, the timber of a temple 

 of Apollo at Utica in Africa, which, when nearly two 

 thousand years old, was found to be perfectly sound, and 

 the famous statue of Diana in the temple of Saguntum 

 in Spain. Cedria, an oil or resin extracted from a Cedar, 

 was, also, according to Vitruvius, used to smear over the 

 leaves of the papyrus, to prevent the attack of worms ; and 

 Pliny states that the Egyptians applied it, with other 

 drugs, in the preparation of their mummies : but whether 

 this extract was obtained from the Lebanon Cedar, or from 

 trees belonging to the genus cupressus or juniperus which 

 also afford odoriferous resins, it is now impossible to as- 

 certain. Passing to the modern history of this tree, we 

 find that Lebanon and its Cedars have been an object of 

 interest to all Eastern travellers, since the time of Belon, 

 who visited Syria about a. d. 1550, and is one of the first 

 who describes that particular group of large and ancient 

 Cedars which, for many ages, have been regarded with 

 the greatest respect and veneration by the inhabitants of 

 that country, and particularly by the Maronite Christians, 

 who annually celebrate the festival of the Transfiguration 

 beneath the shadow of their enormous boughs. At the 

 time of his visit these ancient trees were supposed to 

 amount to about twenty-eight, " though, he says, it is 

 difficult to count them, they being distant from each other 



* Virg. JEn. lib. vii. 177. 



