182 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 
name and sight as the Cedar of Lebanon, and thereby 
rather intimating that some occult connection existed 
between the first half of the tree’s double name and 
the Latin word liber (free) ; whereas the origin, in 
reality, is to be found in that Greek word AiBavos, 
which comes to refer to the incense used at religious 
functions. The mountain chain after which the 
tree was named had the same derivation as the Libo 
in Libocedrus. The word “ cedar ’’ is derived from the 
Greek word xéSpos, and xé8pos (lexiconically speak- 
ing) is translated as ‘‘ the cedar tree, the wood of 
which was burnt for. perfume or used. to scent oint- 
ment.” 
Mt. Lebanon, from which our Cedar of that name 
took its title, is called the White Mountain—it is 
said, on account of the white resin of the coniferous 
trees that bedeck the scene. The resin.of certain 
trees—not very easily distinguishable—was used as 
a chief ingredient in the preparation of the frank-, 
incense used alike by pagans and true believers for 
purposes of ritual or sacrificial fumigation. The 
Libocedrus of the west, be it added, has no more a 
monopoly of its production in the West than has any 
one or particular Cedar or Conifer of it in the East. 
The Cedar of Lebanon is not the tree from which an 
idolatrous people probably extracted their resin to 
transform into the incense they burnt ‘“ upon the 
hills, under the Oaks and Poplars and Elms,” in the 
days of the prophet Hosea. It may have been 
equally or exclusively applied to some other Conifers— 
the Roman Cypress, the Juniper, or Pinus Halepensis 
—for all we know. Thus, although there is no 
confusion of appearance as between Libocedrus and 
Cedrus Libani, there is between them a certain 
connection in the derivation of the names that have 
been bestowed on them. The Libocedrus is known 
colloquially by the name of Incense Cedar, and in 
