8 
CEDRUS LIBANI 
Lower Miocene), and was first described by Unger; but his description is extremely meagre, and without 
any figure. Goeppert, however, in his monograph of Fossil Conifers, says, after reproducing Unger’s 
short description, that he remembers to have seen, in Schlotheim’s collection (now incorporated in the 
Berlin Museum), a specimen of a damaged cone, whose whole form was remarkably suggestive of the 
Lebanon or the Deodar Cedar.* 
We made inquiry concerning this specimen through the late Professor Karl Koch of Berlin; and after 
some trouble, occasioned by Schlotheim’s collection having been merged in the general collection, the cone 
has been traced, and figs. 27 and 28 are portraits of it from different 
sides. Its claim to be the cone of the leaves described by Unger 
seems doubtful. Professor Goeppert has again seen it since we 
inquired after it, and continues of the mind that it is of the 
Cedar type. Professor Karl Koch was more inclined to regard 
it as a Spruce; and we sway in doubt between these two great 
authorities. If it is a Cedar, it seems nearer our present Cedar 
than Abies Benstedi was. Whether it be a Cedar cone or not, 
there can be less doubt about Cedar leaves, or something like them, 
having been found in the brown coal of Radoboj. They are more 
easily recognised, and their typical character is less easily destroyed. 
The brown coal at Radoboj in which these traces of the ancient Cedar have been found, lies near 
Angram, in Croatia, not far from the borders of Styria, and is covered, according to Van Buch, by beds 
containing the marine shells of the Vienna basin ; or, in other words, as stated by Sir Charles Lyell, by 
Upper Miocene or Falunian strata. The coal thus belongs to the Lower Miocene. 
We have, therefore, the possible fact, that long before the Glacial epoch there existed in the south 
of Europe a Cedar in company with forms of animal and vegetable life, which, like the Cedar itself, are 
now represented by allied species in India. 
When the Glacial epoch came, it would be driven south before the cold; and as there was little 
of Europe above water, or not reached by the Glacial ice at that time, except a part of Spain, North 
Africa (all Africa north of the Sahara being then part of Europe), Sicily, and perhaps a portion of what 
is now the Mediterranean Sea, it would be driven into the more southern of these parts. 
It is not impertinent to this argument here to cite this fact that the Pinus halefiensis, which is found 
at Lebanon, a little below the Cedars, is also found in Mount Taurus and Mount Amanus, and generally 
in the mountains both in Syria and Asia Minor, and is also found keeping company with them on Mount 
Atlas. Many other plants, common to both places, could be cited, but the Pimis halefiensis is more 
in its own degree, and, besides, has very much the same range, although somewhat more extended. 
If they were driven into north Africa, the only part there above water was north-east Africa, 
where the Cedrus A tlantica now lives; and if on the recess of the Glacial epoch, the return of the Cedar 
into Europe was cut off by the formation of the Mediterranean, that would so far account for its absence 
in Europe. To the east, again, the Cedar would be driven into those parts of the south which were above 
water; and if the Cedar districts may be held to point out where the dry land to the south existed, we 
should then have something of the nature of a sign-post to shew us the places of refuge or gateways of 
escape from the cold of the Glacial epoch—most of both of Europe and Asia being then either under 
water or under ice. 
The degrees of resemblance and difference between the trees from the different districts seems to lend 
support to the hypothesis of change. of form being produced by the passage of the species into new 
* The following is Unger’s description of this species:— “Pinitis Ungeri (Palaeocedrus extinctus, Unger Synops, p. 200). . . . P. foliis e gemmis subglobosis vel subcylindricis 
erumpentibus sessilibus rigidis subclavatis obtusis carina in utraque? pagina prominente, tetragonis. Strata tertiaria ad Radobogum Croatia.”—( Unger Genera et Species Plantarum 
Fossilium, 1850). 
Goeppert’s description is as follows:—“ Pal/f.ocedrus Unger. Folia fasciculata, acerosa, tandem solitaria, pulvinis linearibus haud incrassatis, ramo adnatis cicatricibus 
rhombeis. FI. masculi vel amenta stamenigera in apicibus ramorum. Strobili squamis apice haud incrassatis.” 
conditions 
