408 THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



years ago ; and now the hissing steam-engine 

 passes over its withered roots. Such things, it 

 seems, must be ; and we must not too much 

 grieve or complain at any of the changes that 

 pass around us in this world of changes, and 

 yet we cannot but feel sorry for the Cedar of 

 Lebanon. 



Such is the history of the introduction of the 

 Cedar into France ; a tale which has often been 

 told, but nowhere in a more pleasing manner 

 than in the foregoing extract from Sharpe's 

 London Magazine." The date of its introduc- 

 tion into Great Britain is not known. 



Spenser describes the tree, but in a way which 

 proves that he knew it only by name : 



" High on a hill a goodly Cedar grew, 



Of wondrous length and straight proportion, 

 That far abroad her dainty odours threw, 



'Mongst all the daughters of proud Lebanon." 



Milton's description is scarcely more accurate, 

 the Cedar being remarkable not on account of its 

 height, but the spread of its branches : 



" over head up grew, 

 Insuperable height of loftiest shade. 

 Cedar, and Pine, and Fir, and branching Palm." 



The older botanists who mention it, speak of it as 

 a tree which they had never seen. 



Evelyn, who wrote in the reign of Charles IL, 

 describes it as a beautiful and stately tree, clad 

 in perpetual verdure, and likely to thrive in Old 

 England as well as it did on the mountains of 

 Libanus, whence, he says, he had received cones 

 and seeds from the few remaining trees. He 



