CEDRUS LIBANI 
will be seen that each occupies a distinct territory, 1400 miles away from the other: the first in the western 
Himmalayas; the second in Lebanon, Mount Taurus, and in the island of Cyprus; and the third in 
the Mount Atlas Range in the north-east of Africa. 
The existence of the Cedar in Cyprus has only recently been made known by Sir Joseph Hooker, 
who, at the meeting of the Linnean Society, held on the 20th November 1879, exhibited a large branch 
with male catkins and female cones, which had been sent to him from the mountains of that island by Sir 
Samuel Baker. Its presence in Cyprus was previously entirely unsuspected. Sir Samuel said that the 
monks of Trooditissa consider it to be the Chittim wood of Scripture. Sir Joseph, in commenting on the 
specimen, stated that in general appearance, in the shortness of the leaves and the form of the cones, the 
specimen resembled the Atlas more than the Lebanon form. The fact of the discovery of this station 
for the Cedar suggests the possibility of its being found in some other unexplored localities. Plants have 
been raised at Kew from the seeds sent home by Sir Samuel Baker, and at the present date (Dec. 1881) 
the seedlings are strong and healthy. 
Now, one thing is perfectly clear, and that is, that these three kinds of Cedar must all originally have 
sprung from one common ancestor. That ancestor may have been the same as one of these, or it may 
have been something different from either; but the close similarity of all three to each other prohibits the 
supposition that the difference can have been material. How come these patches to be located at such 
great distances from each other? Was there once a continuous forest of Cedars all the way from the 
Himmalayas to Mount Atlas? or, at least, was their range thus extensive, though not absolutely a 
continuous forest ? or did they spread from one common centre, dropping a link here, and cut off by an 
alteration of level there, so that we have not the remnants of three different quarters of one extensive camp, 
but three camps left on two or more extensive journeys ? 
The first and most important point to be ascertained is the date of the appearance of the Cedar in 
geological time. Was it in existence previous to the Glacial epoch ? or was it a form which owed its 
existence to the change of condition brought about by that epoch ? Was it a Miocene, 
Fossil Remains. or a Post-Pliocene species ? One great difficulty, which we must lay our account with 
in this inquiry, is the small chance there is of Cedar cones ever having been pre¬ 
served in a fossil state. As already said, the Cedar partakes of the nature of the Silver Firs, the 
cone seldom falling entire from the tree. The scales as a rule, and sooner or later, drop off indi¬ 
vidually, leaving the core of the cone standing erect like a branchlet (which homologically it is)— 
consequently scales, leaves, and branches may be found; but a mature cone could rarely come within 
the scope of fossil influence, except under exceptional circumstances. A Cedar cone would indeed 
not be quite so hopeless a case as that of a Silver Fir, in which there are only a few weeks between 
the ripening of the cone and its tumbling all to pieces; for the Cedar cone remains on the branches 
for two or more years. Botanical collectors often find themselves baffled in collecting seeds of the 
Silver Firs by this quality of their cones. If a week too late, the blows of their axe in cutting down 
a tree to get the cones scatter them all to the winds. It is thus scarcely possible to conceive of any 
means by which a ripe cone of a true Silver Fir can ever have been preserved in any fossil deposit. 
The only time at which it could have been done is in the short interval between greenness and ripeness, 
whilst it was still sufficiently green to hold together, and sufficiently dry and mature not to rot away. 
A tree, growing on the bank of a river, at that stage might, by the falling in of the bank, be engulfed; 
and in that case it is not impossible, although exceedingly improbable, that a Silver Fir cone might 
be fossilised. As might be expected from all this, whilst fossil remains of cones of Pines and Spruces are 
by no means rare, there are only two or three instances recorded of a fossil cone of a Silver Fir or Cedar 
having been even supposed to be met with.* 
* Schimper in his “Traite de Palseontologie Vegetale,” tom. ii. p. 299, mentions the following fossil Cedars: (x) Cedrus Leckenbyz, Carruthers, lower greensand, Shanklin, 
Isle of Wight; (2) C. Benstedi; and (3) C. Corned, Coemans, cretaceous rocks of Hainault, Belgium. He describes C. Leckenbyi and Corned as resembling the C. Deodara rather than 
C. Libani. Schimper expresses his opinion that the Palaecedrus of Unger has nothing in common with Cedrus. 
Two 
