PINEftiM DANICUMi 



409 



and that we found no young trees, bushes, nor even seedlings, of a 

 second year's growth. We had no means of estimating accurately the 

 ages of the youngest or oldest tree. It may be remarked, however, 

 that the wood of the branch of an old tree, cut at the time, is 8 inches 

 in diameter (exclusive of bark), presents an extremely firm, compact, 

 and close-grained texture, and has no less than one hundred and forty 

 rings, which are so close in some parts that they cannot be counted 

 without a lens. Calculating only from the rings on this branch, the 

 youngest trees in Lebanon would average a hundred years old ; the 

 oldest two thousand five hundred years old, both estimates, no doubt, 

 widely far from the mark. Calculating from trunks of English 

 rapidly-grown specimens, their ages might be estimated as low, re- 

 spectively, as five and two hundred years ; while from the rate of 

 growth of the Chelsea Cedar, the youngest tree may be twenty-two, 

 and the oldest six to eight hundred years old. 



•'The positions of the oldest trees afi'orded some interesting data 

 relating to the ages of the different parts of the grove, and the 

 direction in which it had lately spread. There were only fifteen trees 

 above 15 feet in girth, and these all occurred in two of the nine 

 clumps, which two contained one hundred and eighty trees. Only 

 two others exceeded 12 feet in girth, and these were found in 

 immediately adjoining clumps, one on one side and one on the other 

 of the above-mentioned. There were five clumps, containing a 

 hundred and sixty-six trees, none of which were above 12 feet in 

 girth, and these Avere all to the westward of the others. On this side, 

 therefore, the latest addition to the grove had taken place. 



" The wood of the Cedar is of a reddish white, light and spongy, 

 easily worked, but very apt to shrink and warp, and by no means 

 durable. The horizontal section, as Loiseleur Deslongchamps justly 

 observes, exhibits the annual layers very distinctly marked. Each 

 year has apparently two ; the one narrow, close-grained, hard, and of 

 a reddish brown, and the other three or four times broader, loose, 

 Spongy, and whitish. In general, the section of the trunk of a Cedar 

 bears a nearer resemblance to that of the Silver Fir than to that of 

 any other of the Abietineas. When the tree has grown on mountains the 

 annual layers are much narrower, and the fibre much finer, than 

 when it has grown in plains ; so much so that a piece of Cedar- 

 wood brought from Mount Lebanon by Dr. Pariset in 1829, and 

 which he had made into a small piece of furniture, presented a sur- 

 face compact, agreeably veined, and variously shaded, which, on the 

 whole, may be considered handsome " (Hist, du Cedre, &c. p. 43). 



The date of the introduction of the Cedar of Lebanon into 

 England cannot be fixed with certainty ; it is not mentioned in 

 Evelyn's " Silva," written in 1664, but there is evidence to show 

 that its introduction was eftected very shortly afterw^ards (Veitch). 



The economic value of the Cedar of Lebanon in modern times, 



