'24:30 



AKBOKETUM AND FRUTJCETUM. 



I'AKT HI. 



2286 



described to have 

 been which was used 

 in the construction of 

 Solomon's Temple. 

 The principal diffi- 

 culty, with reference 

 to its being the cedar 

 of Holy Writ, is, that 

 it has never been 

 found on, or near, 

 Mount Lebanon. It 

 is regarded by the 

 Hindoos as a sacred 

 tree, and is called by 

 them JDevadera, or 

 the Tree of God. In 

 some places it is 

 highly venerated, and 

 never used but to burn as incense on occasions of great ceremony ; but, in 

 others, it is employed for building houses, &c, as a valuable timber tree. 

 Mr. Moorcroft, in his Journal, as quoted in Lambert's Pinus, gives the following 

 proofs of the durability of the wood of this tree : — " A few years ago a building 

 erected by the order of the Emperor Akbar was taken down, and its timber 

 (which was that of the deodar) was found so little impaired as to be fit to be 

 employed in a house built by Rajah Shah. Granting that the former edifice was 

 constructed at the same time as the fort of Nagurunger, a.h. 1006, or a. d. 

 1597, its age must have been 225 years. Zenool Abudeen began to reign over 

 Kashmeer a.h. 820, or a.d. 1417; and died a. h. 878, or a. d. 1473. His 

 mother was interred in a domed building of excellent brick and mortar work, 

 reported to have been erected in the time of the Hindoo sovereigns. In this 

 building, pieces of deodar were inserted in the walls, by way, apparently, of 

 strengthening the bond; and their ends or sides were left on the same plane 

 with the brickwork. The window frames were of the same material, with 

 the difference, however, of the former being squared and deprived of their 

 sap wood, whilst the latter, somewhat carelessly, had part of the sap wood 

 left ; and the surface was only slightly smoothed, and partly retained its 

 original form. In the latter instance, the crust of the wood was generally 

 somewhat crumbly, and had been pierced by a worm about a in. in depth; 

 whilst that of the squared wood, exposed much more to the influence of the 

 weather, was neither crumbly nor wormeaten, but was jagged, from the softer 

 part of the wood, between the plates or ribs, having been often washed by the 

 rain, though its structnre had not been attacked by the worm." 



The tree alluded to in the following extract from a letter from Bishop 

 Heber to Lord Grenville appears evidently to have been the deodara. The 

 bishop, speaking of a visit which he paid to the Himalayan Mountains, and of 

 the pines which he found there, adds : — " Another, and of less frequent occur- 

 rence, is a splendid tree, with gigantic arms and dark narrow leaves, which is 

 accounted sacred, and chiefly seen in the neighbourhood of ancient Hindoo 

 temples, and which struck my unscientific eye as very nearly resembling the 

 cedar of Lebanon. J found it flourishing at nearly 9000 ft. above the level of 

 the sea, and where the frost was as severe at night as is usually met with at 

 the same season (November and December) in England." In Burnes's Travels 

 in the Mysore, he states that " the frameworks of the houses are made of 

 deodara cedar, which is floated down with the inundations of the river Schem, 

 or Hydaspes, from the Himalaya. The durability and fragrance of the wood 

 recommend it for buildings of avcry description. We saw a cedar tree," he 

 continues, " lying on the banks of the Hydaspes, with a circumference of 

 13 ft. On this river the Macedonians constructed the fleet by which they 

 '"1 the Indus ; and it is a remarkable fact, that in none of the Punjab 



