Botany and Zoology. 149 



tree, cut at the time, is eight inches in diameter (exclusive of bark), presents 

 an extremely firm, compact, and close-grained texture, and has no less than 

 140 rings, which are so close in some parts that they cannot be counted with- 

 out a lens. This specimen further, is both harder and browner than any 

 English-grown Cedar or native Deodar, and is as odoriferous as the latter. 



and are no guide to the general character of the wood on the Lebanon, and 

 still less to that of English-grown specimens, which are always very inferior 

 in color, odor, grain, and texture. Calculating only from the rings in this 

 branch, the youngest trees in Lebanon would average 100 years old, the oldest 

 •2.500, both estimates no doubt widely far from the mark. Calculating from 

 trunks of English rapidly-grown specimens, their ages might be calculated as 

 I'^w respectively as 5 and 200 years ; while from the rate of growth of the 

 Ciielsea Cedars, the youngest trees may be 22, and the oldest G to 800 years 



"The positions of the oldest trees (of the 400) afforded some interesting data 

 relative to the ages of the different parts of the grove, and the direction in 

 which It had lately spread. There were only 15 trees above 15 feet in girth, 

 and these all occurred in two of the nine clumps, which two contained 180 

 trees. Only two others exceeded 12 feet in girth, and these were found in im- 

 mediately adjoining clumps, one on one side and one on the other of the above 

 mentioned. There were five clumps containing 156 trees, none of which 

 was above 12 feet in girth, and these were all to the westward, (or down- 

 valley) side of the others. On this side, therefore, the latest addition to the 

 grove has taken place. 



" VVhether the grove has much diminished within the historic period, is a 



records of old travellers. It would not surprise me, if proofs existed of its not 

 naving materially decreased since the days of Solomon ; for it is very doubtful 

 Whether the wood was ever largely used in Jerusalem for building purposes." 

 " On tK« „^t.__ i,_ 1 .. ^^ j.j^g grove has, within the historic period, increased 



iberefthatno seedling has come to maturity (though 



■ - irth of trees til ^ -.u:„u 



grove presents 

 :eed as many f 



[ have collecteu suiue cunuus cu.- 

 ooorativeevidenci, from the works "of old travellers." ^ j, ^ 



The Cedar also grows on the chain of the Taurus, 2oO miles off. Fourteen 



jundred miles off in another direction, separated by the whole breadth ot the 



Mediterranean sea, are the forests of Cedrus Mantica of Algeria. "The 



Afhcan Cedar differs from that of Lebanon in having a perfectly erect, rigid 



•«adpr. and stiff ends to the branches, all which, in the Lebanon plant, drop 



^ or less," and there are other but more variable differences, /""rteen 



' miles in the other direction reach to the borders of the Cedar forests 



.aanistan, which extend eastward almost to Nepal. The Himalayan 



; -r Deodar, C Volm, " has a much more pendulous leader and end 



^ tranches, and longer leaves, of a more glaucous hue than C. ^'^am, 



T^S^ not such silvery leaves as the C. Atlantica. The cones are bm large as 



;^'^^^f of C. Uhani, but the scales and seeds are of the same forin as those of 



"-• Mantica, and hence markedly different from those of C. libam _ 



From what has been said respecting each of these Cedars it ^^ eviden^ 

 ^t the distinctions between them are so trifling, and so far withm the proved 

 m»ts of variation of Coniferous plants, that it may reasonably be assumed that 

 ^li originally sprang from one. It should be added, that there are no ottier dis- 

 ^ctiona whatever between them-of bark, wood, leaves, male-cones, anthere, 

 "J the structure of these— nor in their mode of germmaUon or aurauon, me 

 ^^ they attain, n. ,h.i. v,,«lin««. Also, that all are very vanable m habit ; 



Jsands annually germinate), since the birth of trees tlie youngest ol wn 

 « inches in girth ; and that the whole grove presents such a disparity 

 aws r>P;to *.„„„ .u_^ _^i_. _i.-.-^ ic „„„„^,l o= mflnvfppf in rrirth. and? 





