IO 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
although a wolf may be fpecifically the fame as a Maltefe fpaniel, no one would, we imagine, feel inclined to 
confound the two, or to confider them ftriCtly allied, except from a theoretical point of view. Such, we 
imagine, is the manner in which the Deodar queflion muff be practically confidered. Botanifts may trace 
unfufpefited refemblances; the differences by which the plants are popularly feparated may be fhewn to be 
trifling and unimportant in the eye of pure fcience: but the faCt remains, that great differences do exift; and 
if they are permanent in a general fenfe, then the diftinCtion of the two is unaffeCted.” 
Dr Jofeph Hooker, a more decided advocate of the fpecific identity of the three fpecies, but one having 
had the advantage of writing fubfequently to the publication of Mr Darwin’s theory, and to the difcuffions 
which followed upon it (which was not the cafe with the author of the above quotation), thus fums up his 
opinion :—“ From what has been faid refpeCting each of the three Cedars, it is evident that the diftinCtions 
between them are fo trifling, and fo far within the proved limits of variation of coniferous plants, that it may 
reafonably be affumed that all originally fprang from one.Hitherto C. Atlantica has been almoft 
univerfally confidered a variety of Libani , and C. Deodar a a diftinCt fpecies : habit having been relied upon 
excluflvely, and botanical chambers negleCted ; for there is an obvious and marked difference in the latter 
refpeCt between the common ftates of A tlantica and Libani , and more between A tlantica and Deodara. 
This is perplexing, for C. Libani holds an intermediate pofltion, both geographically and in character of 
foliage, between the two that agree in the moft important characters ; and, further, we can account in a great 
meafure for the differences of habit by the climate of the three localities : the moft fparfe, weeping, long¬ 
leaved Cedar is from the moft humid region, the Himmalayas; whilft the plant of moft rigid and otherwife 
oppofite habit, correfponds with the climate of the country under the influence of the great Sahara defert. 
No courfe remains, then, but to regard all as fpecies, or all as varieties, or the Deodara and Atlantica as 
varieties of one fpecies, and Libani as another. The hitherto adopted and only alternative, of regarding 
Libani and Atlantica as varieties, and Deodara as a fpecies, muft be given up. I have dwelt thus at length 
upon the value of the character feparating the three Cedars, becaufe the queftion, whether thefe are one 
fpecies or three, ftands at the threfhold of all inquiry into the early hiftory of the plant. My own 
impreffion is, that they fhould be regarded as three well-marked forms, which are ufually very diftinCt, but 
which often graduate into one another, not as colours do by blending, but as members of a family do, by the 
prefence in each of fome characters common to moft of the others, and which do not interfere with or 
obliterate all the individual features of the poffeffor. Moreover, I regard them as in fo far permanently 
diftinCt plants, that though all fprang from one parent, none of them will ever affume all the characters either 
of that extinCfc parent, or of the other two forms. There will, in fhort, be no abfolute reverfton amongft 
thefe. Each will yield varieties after its own kind, retaining fome of the characters of their progenitors, and 
affuming others foreign to them all; and it will depend on their relative fuccefs in the ftruggle for life in a 
wild ftate, and upon the wants of man in a cultivated one, which of thefe fhall be preferved, and for 
how long.” {Nat. Hijl. Rev., Jan. 1862.) 
There is probably little real difference between Dr Lindley’s and Dr Hooker’s views: they both refer 
all three varieties or fpecies to one original parentage. Whether they have advanced fo far as to believe 
them independent fpecies, or have halted half-way at that of permanent varieties, is a mere queftion of 
degree, or, as Dr Lindley would put it, a mere difpute about words. That all three are connected 
together, and are to be traced to a common anceftor, no perfon will deny. What that anceftor may have 
been, and, if it be one of thofe now furviving, which of them it is, is an interefting fubjeCt of fpeculation. 
There are no foflil remains to decide it, but there are fome geological records which have a bearing upon it. 
Dr Hooker, in his examination of the Cedars of Lebanon in their native habitat, found that the 
Kedifha Valley, to one fpot at the head of which the Cedars of Lebanon are confined, terminates at an 
elevation of 6000 feet, in broad, fhallow, flat-floored balms; and that the floor of that in which the Cedars 
grow, is croffed abruptly and tranfverfely by a confufed range of antient moraines which have been 
depoflted by glaciers, which, under very different conditions of climate, muft once have filled the balm above 
them, and communicated with the perpetual fnow with which the whole fummit of Lebanon muft at that 
time 
