CfiDEUS LIBANl. 139 



be traversed in a few hours, and every individual Cedar within it 

 measured and its position mapped down. The information given in 

 these reports further leads to the conclusion that the number of Cedars 

 will continue to diminish till the grove itself has become extinct. 



From the account of the expedition to Mount Lebanon, above referred 

 to, published by Sir J. D. Hooker in the Natural History Review, for 

 January, 1862, we obtain the following very interesting particulars : — 



" The Cedars are confined to one spot at the head of the Kedisha 

 Valley ; they have, however, been found by Ehrenberg in valleys to 

 the northward of tins. The Kedisha Valley, at 6,000 feet elevation, 

 terminates in broad, shallow, flat-floored basins, and is 2 to 3 miles 

 across; it is in a straight line 15 miles from the sea, and about 

 3 or 4 from the summit of Lebanon, which is to the northward of it. 



"The Cedars form one group, about 400 yards hi diameter, with 

 an outstanding tree or two not far from the rest, and appear as a 

 black speck in the great area of the corry and its moraines, which 

 contain no other arboreous vegetation, nor any shrubs, but a few small 

 Berberry and Eose bushes, that form no feature in the landscape. 



"The number of trees is about four hundred, and they are disposed in 

 nine groups; they are of various sizes, from about 18 inches to upwards 

 of 40 feet in girth ; but the most remarkable and significant fact 

 connected with their size, and consequently with the age of the grove, 

 is, that there is no tree less than 18 inches hi girth, and that we 

 found no young trees, bushes, nor even seedlings, of a second year's 

 growth. We had no means of estimating accurately the ages of the 

 youngest or oldest tree. It may be remarked, however, that the wood 

 of the branch of an old tree, cut at the time, is 8 inches hi diameter 

 (exclusive of bark), presents an extremely firm, compact, and close- 

 grained texture, and has no less than one hundred and forty rings, 

 which are. so close in some parts, that they cannot be counted without 

 a lens. Calculating only from the rings on this branch, the youngest 

 trees in Lebanon would average one hundred years old, the oldest 

 two thousand five hundred years old, both estimates, no doubt, widely 

 far from the mark. Calculating from trunks of English rapidly grown 

 specimens, their ages might be estimated as low respectively as five 

 and two hundred years ; while from the rate of growth of the Chelsea 

 Cedar, the youngest tree may be twenty-two, and the oldest six to 

 eight hundred years old. 



"The positions of the oldest trees afforded some interesting data 

 relating to the ages of the different parts of the grove, and the direction 

 in which it had lately spread. There were only fifteen trees above 

 15 feet in girth, and these all occurred in two of the nine clumps, 

 which two contained one hundred and eighty trees. Only two others 

 expeeded 12 feet in girth, and these Were found in immediately 

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



