CEDAR OF LEBANON. 175 



their number, as is reported of the stones of 

 our Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain. 



Nature, who has not neglected to form her 

 lowest vegetable works suitable to the situa- 

 tions where they are scattered, has displayed, 

 in the formation of the cedar, a wisdom that 

 excites the admiration of all naturalists. This 

 noble tree sends forth the lower part of its 

 branches in an upward direction, to convey 

 the rain water by these slopes to the trunk, 

 and from thence to the roots ; which other- 

 wise could not receive sufficient moisture, 

 whilst the extremities of the branches bend 

 downwards, that the snows, in the region of 

 which it takes delight to dwell, may slide 

 from its foliage. The cones of this stately 

 tree are endowed with a peculiar mode of 

 sheltering their parts of fructification, for at 

 their season of flowering they bend to the 

 earth ; but when they are fecundated, they 

 turn erect towards heaven, to mature their 

 seed ; and it is then a most beautiful object to 

 look down upon, as those must acknowledge 

 who have mounted the artificial hill in the 

 Jardin des Plantes, to behold the cedar which 

 Mons. Buffon planted below. The cedar is 

 placed, by Linnaeus, as well as the larch, in 

 the same genus with the firs and pines ; it 



