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JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HOETICULTURAL SOCIEI'Y, 



several trees of the Pine tribe, it may very possibly have been the 

 same in the Hebrew. Under this view it might sometimes denote the 

 ' Cedar of Lebanon/ and often other trees of a similar character ; and 

 if so, those equally err who insist that this tree can only be intended, 

 and those who contend for some other particular species, to the. exclu- 

 sion of all the rest. Meanwhile it may be observed that the so-called 

 ' Cedar of Lebanon ' can hardly be intended in this particular text, 

 as, although the trunk of this tree is large, it is neither long nor 

 straight, and therefore utterly unfit to be the mast of a ship ; to 

 which may be added, the wood is soft and inferior to the worst 

 sorts of deal." Mr. Lambert, in his description of this tree, also 

 observes : — 



" The diuturnity of the Cedar we frequently find alluded to. The 

 wood of this famous tree has been supposed to preserve books much 

 better than any other material ; hence the expression ' cedro dignus ' 

 was considered one of the highest compliments that could be bestowed 

 on a literary performance. It is recorded that in the Temple of Apollo 

 at Utica was found Cedar-wood nearly two thousand years old ; and at 

 Saguntum in Spain, in an oratory consecrated to Diana two hundred 

 years before the destruction of Troy, a beam was discovered which has 

 since been removed to Zante ; but, in the relation of the properties 

 assigned to this tree. Professor Martyn says there is much vulgar error 

 and confusion, the Cedar of Lebanon being often confounded with trees 

 which belong to different genera. At least the accounts given by the 

 ancients of the long duration of their Cedar very ill accord with the 

 species now under consideration, whose wood is no more than a very 

 inferior kind of deal, with little or no smell, and of a soft texture, 

 evidently of short duration (Pinet. Woburn. 147). 



"The Cedars are mostly confined to one spot at the head of the 

 Kedisha Valley ; they have, however, been found by Ehrenberg in 

 valleys to the northward of this. The Kedisha Valley, at 6,000 feet 

 elevation, terminates in broad, shallow, fiat-floored basins, and is two 

 to three miles across ; it is in a straight line 15 miles from the sea, and 

 about three or four from the summit of Lebanon, which is to the 

 northward of it, 



" The Cedars form one group, about 400 yards in diameter, with 

 an outstanding tree or two not far from, the rest, and appear as a 

 black speck in the great area of the corry and its moraines, which 

 contain no other arboreous vegetation, nor any shrubs but a few 

 small Berberry and Rose bushes, that form no feature in the 

 landscape. 



"The number of trees is about four hundred, and they are dis- 

 posed in nine groups ; they are of various sizes, from about 18 inches 

 to upwards of 40 feet in girth ; but the most remarkable and 

 significant fact connected with their size, and consequently with the 

 age of the grove, is that there is no tree less than 18 inches in girth, 



