CEDRUS LIBANI 
thus now thirteen distinct ascertained localities in the Lebanon, and the northern mountains have not been 
explored at all. The localities are as follows :— 
1. The “ Grove.” 
2. The grove at Etnub, found by Seetzen. 
3. The clump near Ehden, found by Tristram, and probably that referred to by Lithgow in 1614. 
4. Between El Hadith and Kunat, found both by Seetzen and Tristram, and probably that referred 
to by Eugene Roger in 1636. 
5. At Ed Dunniyeh, south of Akkar, found by Seetzen. 
6. The forests on the road between Bsherreh and Bshinnate, found by Ehrenberg. 
7. In the Dunzier gorge. 
8 . Duma. 
9. East of Ain Zahalteh (very large). 
10. Two small groves above El Medenk, on the eastern slope, overlooking the Bukaa, long, 
35 0 45' E., and lat. 35 0 47' N. 
11. Above El Baruk. 
12. Above Maasir. 
13. Between Sakhlehe and Der El Khamer, discovered by M. Bove. 
It is not difficult to understand how these localities have remained unknown until now, while the 
principal grove has been so celebrated. It alone lies adjacent to any of the great roads which lead across 
Lebanon; and there was nothing to tempt, but much to deter, travellers from diverging from the route, 
and wandering without an object into the unknown and more inaccessible parts of the mountain. 
The “ Grove ” lies in the Kedisha valley, at an elevation of 6000 feet above the sea (which, it will be 
remembered, is the same elevation as that of the range of the Cedar on the southern slope of Mount 
Taurus). The valley extends 2 or 3 miles in length, and as much in breadth. As described by Sir Joseph 
Hooker, it terminates in open broad shallow flat-floored basins, with shelving sides, which rise from 2000 
to 4000 feet above their bases, resembling the corries of our Highland mountains. The floor of that in 
which the Cedars grow presents almost a dead level to the eye, crossed abruptly and transversely by a 
confused range of antient moraines, which have been deposited by glaciers that, under different conditions 
of climate, once filled the basin above them, and communicated with the perpetual snow with which the 
whole summit of Lebanon must at that time have been deeply covered. The moraines are perhaps 80 to 
100 feet high ; their boundaries are perfectly defined, and they divide the floor of the basin into an upper 
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and lower flat area. The rills from the surrounding heights collect on the upper flat, and form one stream, 
which winds amongst the moraines on its way to the lower flat, whence it is precipitated into the gorge of 
the Kedisha. The Cedars grow on that portion of the moraine which immediately borders this stream, 
and nowhere else; they form one group about 400 yards in diameter, with an outstanding tree or two not 
far from the rest, and appear as a black speck in the great area of the corry and its moraines, which contain 
no other arboreous vegetation, nor any shrubs, but a few small barberry and rose bushes that form no 
feature in the landscape. 
History .—The earliest notices which we have of the Cedar are in the Bible, and the first genuine 
allusion to it occurs in the reign of David, it being almost certain that one or two previous notices of a 
tree bearing that name do not apply to it. We shall, however, quote the principal. 
The oldest book in the Bible is said to be Job; and if Hebraists are right, it was written before the 
Israelites occupied the whole of Palestine, or probably knew about Lebanon ; consequently the presumption 
is against any allusion to the real Cedar occurring in that book ; and, unless it should be indisputably 
appropriate, we must refer any supposed allusion to the Cedar in it to some other tree. There is one 
verse in which the Cedar is spoken of, but the allusion is singularly inappropriate, and therefore most 
probably 
