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LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
The Cedar of Lebanon Tree. Cedrus 
Nat. Ord. Coniferae. Lin. Syst. Monoecia, Monadelphia 
The Cedar of Lebanon is universally admitted by 
European authors to be the noblest evergreen tree of 
the old world. Its native sites are the elevated valleys 
and ridges of Mount Lebanon and the neighboring heights 
of the lofty groups of Asia Minor. There it once covered 
immense forests, but it is supposed these have never 
recovered from the inroads made upon them by the forty 
score thousand hewers employed by Solomon to procure 
the timber for the erection of the Temple. Modern 
travellers speak of them as greatly diminished in number, 
though there are still specimens measuring thirty-six feet 
in circumference. Mount Lebanon is inhabited by nu- 
merous Maronite Christians, who hold annually a 
celebration of the Transfiguration under the shade of 
the existing trees, which they call the “ Feast of Cedars .” 
The Cedar of Lebanon is nearly related to the Larch, 
having its leaves collected in parcels like that tree, but 
differs widely in the circumstance of its foliage being 
evergreen. It is remarkable for the wide extension of its 
branches, and the immense surface covered by its 
overshadowing canopy of foliage. In the sacred writings 
it is often alluded to as an emblem of great strength, beauty, 
and duration. “ Behold the Assyrian was a Cedar in 
Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, 
and of an high stature ; and his top was among the thick 
boughs. His boughs were multiplied, and his branches 
became long. The fir trees were not like his boughs, nor 
