22 
CEDRUS LI BAN I 
In 1720, according to the report of a friend of Miller’s,* * * § the Grove remained in the same state as it 
had been found by Maundrell some twenty-five years previously, with this difference, that the circumference 
of the spread of the boughs of the largest tree had apparently increased from 3 7 yards to 66; or spread 
outwards 15 feet in every direction, shewing a growth of the lateral branches at the rate of 7$ inches per 
annum. We may mention incidentally, that the rate at which the lateral branches of old Cedars grow in 
this country appears to be rather less, being about six inches annually on an average of years, which, con¬ 
sidering the rapid growth of timber in this country, is the reverse of what we should have expected. 
In 1739, Dr. Pococke found fifteen large Cedars, and especially notices one with three large limbs, 
which we shall afterwards find referred to by M. Laure as still living in 1836. “They form a grove of 
about a mile in circumference, which consists of some large Cedars that are near to one another, and a 
great number of young Cedars and some Pines. . . . One that had the roundest body, though not 
the largest, measured 24 feet in circumference ; and another, with a sort of triple body, as described above, 
and of a triangular figure, measured 12 feet on each side. I took a piece of the wood from a great tree 
that was blown down by the wind, and left there to rot; there are fifteen large ones standing.”! 
Trew quotes a visit to Lebanon made in 1755 by Etienne Schulz, who travelled over several countries 
in Asia. His work, however, is one of those that we have not been able to see. Trew quotes him chiefly 
in relation to the proper application of the native name, but mentions that he had found the trees to be 80 
feet in height.! 
Between 1783 and 1785, Volney visited the Grove, or at least wrote as if he had visited it; for some 
authors (Pariset, Geramb, &c.) think he could not have seen them, or he would never have spoken of them 
in the terms he did. He said : “ These so renowned Cedars resemble many other wonders. Close at 
hand they sustain their reputation badly. Four or five large trees, the only ones which remain, and which 
have nothing particular about them, are not worth the trouble that one takes to scale the precipices which 
lead to them.” § 
Dr. Labillardiere visited them in 1787, and in 1791 published an account of his journey. “ Of the 
antient forest of Lebanon, nothing remains except a group of about one hundred Cedars ; seven of them 
are of wonderful dimensions, and some of these are thicker than 9 feet in diameter.” || 
We have already noticed Seetzen’s travels in 1805, but he does not specify the number of trees. 
Burckhardt, five years later, or in 1810, gives a precise account; but as he divides them into four 
different classes, it is impossible to make out from his enumeration exactly how many of the original 
twenty-eight patriarchs now remained. “ Of the oldest and best-looking trees I 
counted eleven or twelve; twenty-five very large ones, about fifty of middling 
size, and more than three hundred smaller and young ones. The oldest trees 
are distinguished by having the foliage and small branches at the top only, and 
by from five or even seven trunks springing from one base.” Fig. 29 is a fac¬ 
simile of a drawing which he gives of these several stems. “ The branches and 
the foliage of the others were lower, but I saw none whose leaves touched the 
ground like those in Kew Gardens. The trunks of the old trees are covered 
with the names of travellers and other persons who have visited them. I saw 
a date of the 17th century. The trunks of the oldest trees seem to be quite dead; the wood is of a 
grey tint.” IF 
Mr. Kinneir, about the year 1813, travelled through a great part of Asia Minor, and although he 
* Miller’s Dictionary of Gardening. Art. Larix. Ed. 1759. 
t Pococke, Description of the East, 1745, vol. ii., part 1, p. 104; and Pococke, Observations on Syria, p. 105. 
t Trew, op. cit., p. 409. 
§ Volney, Voyage en Syrie et Egypte, 2d edit., 1787, vol. ii., p. 162. 
|| J. J. Labillardiere, M.D., leones Plantarum Syrise rariorum. Paris, 1791. Preface. 
H Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, by the late John Lewis Burckhardt. London, 1822, p. 18. 
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