PINETUM DANICUM. 



401 



full of turpentine, more or less angular, and furnislieti with a large 

 persistent membranaceous wing. 



Cotyledons mostly nine in number. 



Leaves needle-shaped, somewhat four-sided, stiff, persistent, and 

 disposed either in bundles or solitary. 



All splendid evergreen trees, found either on Mount Lebanon, in 

 the North of India, or on the Barbary and Atlas Mountains in Northern 

 Africa. 



The word " Cedar " (" Kedros " of the Greeks) was not restricted by 

 the ancients to the Cedar of Lebanon, but probably derived from the 

 Arabic " kedr," worth or value, or its derivative " kedrat," strength 

 or power, in allusion to the value of the wood. The Hebrew and 

 Arabic names for the Cedar are "Araz" or "Arz," and that of the 

 Romans "Arar," all from the Arabic root "araza" — ^'He was firm 

 and stable, with roots deeply fixed in the ground" (Golius). Other 

 writers derive the name from " kaio," to burn, and " drio," to sweat 

 or distil, a kind of incense being obtained from the split wood, and 

 burnt as a substitute for it in the East ; Pliny also describes the pro- 

 cess of making "cedria" from the Cedar wood by distillation, and 

 affirms its great value as a remedy for toothache, for which cure our 

 modern creosote is therefore but an old remedy revived. Again, others 

 derive the name from Kedron, a brook in Judaea, the Cedar of Lebanon 

 being formerly plentiful along its banks. 



In the Natural History Eevieiv for January 18G2, Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, after giving a general description of the three Cedars in their 

 several habitats, observes " that as species the three Cedars cannot be 

 distinguished, and that they must all have been derived from one 

 common stock. It should be added that, besides the differences in 

 habit, habitat, and colour of foliage, there are no other distinctions 

 whatever between them — of bark, wood, leaves, male cones, anthers, 

 or the structure of these, nor in their mode of germination or duration, 

 the girth they attain, or their hardiness. Also that all are very variable 

 in habit ; so much so indeed is this the case with the Deodar, which is 

 the most distinct of all in habit, that there are several distinct varieties 

 sold by nurserymen, some as stiff-leaved, others as dark-coloured, 

 and others as short-leaved, as the Lebanon Cedar. Also, that though 

 the differences in the shape of the seeds and scales of Libani and 

 Deodara are very marked, they vary much ; many forms of each 

 overlap, and further transition between the most dissimilar may 

 be established by intercalation of seeds and scales from Cedrus 

 atlantica." 



C. atlantica, Manetti, Cat. Hort. Madoet. suppl. 9. C. africana, 

 Gord. Pinet. 39. C. argentea, Loud, ex Gord. Pinet. I. c. C. elegayis, 

 Knight, Syn. Conif. 42. 0. Lihani var, atlantica, J. D. Hook. 

 Journ. Bot. 1880 ; C. Koch, Dendr. ii. 2, 269. Abies atlantica^ 

 Lindl. and Gord. Journ. Hort. Soc. 1850, v. 214. Finns atlantica^ 



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