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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



otherwise than for ornamental planting, is inconsiderable ; the timber 

 of trees felled in Britain is inferior ; " the wood is light, soft, brittle, 

 apt to "warp, and by no means durable " (Lond. Arb. et Frut^ 

 p. 2417). 



In the expedition to Mount Lebanon, undertaken by Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, Captain Washington, R.N., and other gentlemen, in the 

 autumn of 1860, "a section of the lower limb of one of the oldest 

 (which lay dead on the ground) was procured, which gave a totally 

 different idea of the hardness of Cedar-wood from what English 

 specimens do " {Gardeners' Chronicle, 18G2, p. 67). 



Lamartine, who visited the Cedars of Lebanon in 1838, wrote of 

 them : "These trees are the most celebrated natural wonders in the 

 world." 



The ancients thought they grew nowhere else than upon Mount 

 Lebanon, above all other vegetation — thus being peculiarly set apart— 

 a belief which powerfully afiected their religious ideas and at once 

 excited veneration. 



The Arabs, of all sects, to this day attribute to these trees not only 

 vegetative force which enables them to live for ever, but also a soul 

 having the power to express consciousness and feeling similar to 

 animals, and approaching the intelligence of man ; in fact, in the 

 Arab mind they are divine beings in the form of trees. 



The Maronite Christians inhabiting Lebanon are scarcely less 

 pronounced in their regard for this tree than the Moslem Arabs, for 

 annually the patriarch of that sect, attended by scores of bishops, 

 priests, monks^ and five or six thousand of devotees, ascend to the 

 Cedar grove and there celebrate in their shade the ' ' Feast of the 

 Transfiguration," and ecclesiastical censures are denounced against 

 those who shall injure these consecrated trees in any manner. 



In a delightful article published in the Pacific Rural Press, by 

 Mrs. Jeannie C. Carr, of Pasadena, Cal., she states: " The oldest 

 Cedar of Lebanon in Europe is growing in the Jardin des Plantes, in 

 Paris, where it was planted by the elder De Candolle, who brought it 

 from Palestine over a century ago.* It is related that the vessel in 

 w^hich he crossed the Mediterranean was unseaworthy, and during 

 the prolonged voyage the sailors and passengers suffered greatly 

 from the scarcity of water, but De Candolle resolutely denied him- 

 self and gave his scanty portion to the little tree, which, thus 

 saved from perishing, has become the living monument of the great 

 botanist." 



The oldest Cedar of Lebanon in America is in Philadelphia, 

 raised from seed planted by the veteran American botanist Bartram 

 in his now famous garden (J. G. Lemmon). 



A specimen now growing at Bretby in Derbyshire was planted in the 

 year 1G7C. Vide page 489.— [Eds.] 



I 



