Chap. XTII. 



ABIES K^MPFERI. 



275 



an aged cedar of Lebanon. It is called by them 

 tbe Kin-le-sung^ or Golden Pine, probably from 

 tbe rich yellow appearance which the ripened 

 leaves and cones assume in the antumn. Although 

 I had often made enquiries after it, and endea- 

 voured to get the natives to bring me some cones, 

 or to take me to a place where such cones could 

 be procured, I met with no success until the pre- 

 vious autumn, when I had passed by the temple 

 from another part of the country. Their stems, 

 which I measured, were fully five feet in circum- 

 ference two feet from the ground, and carried this 

 size, with a slight diminution, to a height of 50 

 feet, that being the height of the lower branches. 

 The total height I estimated about 120 or 130 

 feet. The stems were perfectly straight through- 

 out, the branches symmetrical, slightly inclined to 

 the horizontal form, and having the appearance 

 of something between the cedar and larch. The 

 long branchless stems were, no doubt, the result of 

 their growing close together and thickly sur- 

 rounded with other trees, for I have since seen a 

 single specimen growing by itself on a mountain 

 side at a much higher elevation, whose lower 

 branches almost touched the ground. This speci- 

 men I shall notice by-and-by. 



I need scarcely say how pleased I was with the 

 discovery I had made, or with what delight, with 

 the permission and assistance of the good priests, 

 I procured a large supply of those curious cones 

 sent to England in the winter of 1853, 



u 



