P I N U S. 
with cedar upon the beams : and the porch of judgment 
was covered with cedar from one fide of the floor to the 
other. And the great court of his palace was with three 
rows of hewed (tones, and a row of cedar beams.” i Kings, 
v. vi. vii. 
Mr. Evelyn remarks, that this cedar is of fo dry a 
nature, that it does not well endure to be fattened with 
nails, from which it ufually (brinks ; and therefore pins 
of the lame wood are better. (Silva, j 56.) 
The allufion of the Pfalmitt, of fpreading abroad like a 
cedar in Libanus, (hows that he was well acquainted 
with this tree, which is remarkable for the wide fpread 
of its branches, rather than for its height. Had Milton 
known it as well, he would not have ufed the expreflion of 
the “Infuperable height ofloftieft (hade,” in fpeaking of 
the cedar. It is not only found on Mount Lebanon, or 
Libanus, butBelon obferved it on the mountains Amanus 
and Taurus. 
Cortes is (aid to have ere£led a palace at Mexico, in 
which were 7000 beams of cedar, mod of them 120 feet long, 
and 12 in circumference, as we are informed by Herrera. 
Some tell us of a cedar felled in Cyprus 130 feet long, 
and 18 in diameter: it was ufed for the main-matt in the 
galley of king Demetrius. 
Solomon’s fourfcore thoufand hewers mutt have confi- 
derably thinned the foreft of Libanus. Few now remain 
there. Rauwolfi' in 1575 faw only twenty-four found 
trees, and two old decayed ones. “ We found ourfelves, 
(fays he) upon the higheft point of the mountain, and 
law nothing higher, but only a fmall hill before us, all 
covered over with fnow, at the bottom whereof the high 
cedar-trees wereftanding. And, though this hill hath in 
former ages been quite covered over with cedars, yet they 
are fince fo decreafed, that I could tell no more but 
twenty-four that (food round about in a circle, and two 
others, the branches whereof are quite decayed for age. 
I alfo went about in this place to look out for fome young 
ones, but could find none at all. Thefe trees are green all 
the year long, have ftrong Items that are feveral fathoms 
about, and are as high as our fir-trees.” Travels, Part II. 
ch. 12. 
Maundrell, in 1696, could reckon only fixteen large 
trees, but many fmall ones. His account is as follows. 
“ Having gone for three hours acrofs the plain of Tripoli, 
I arrived at the foot of Libanus; and from thence conti¬ 
nually afcending, not without great fatigue, came in four 
hours and a half to a fmall village called Eden, and in 
two hours and a half more to the cedars. Thefe noble 
trees grow amongft the fnow near the highett part of 
Libanus; and are remarkable as well for their own age 
and largenefs, as for thofe frequent allufions made to 
them in the word of God. Here are fome of them very 
old, and of a prodigious bulk; and others younger, of a 
(mailer fize. Of the former I could reckon up only fix- 
teen; and the latterare very numerous. I meafured one 
of the largeft, and found it twelve yards fix inches in girt, 
and yet found, and thirty-feven yards in the fpread of 
its boughs. At about five or fix yards from the ground, 
it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal 
to a great tree.” (Journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem.) 
What Maundrell has related, fays Mr. Miller, was con¬ 
firmed to me by a worthy gentleman of my acquaintance, 
who was there in the year 1720, with this difference only, 
that, in meafuringthe branches of the largeft tree, he found 
them to be twenty-two yards in diameter. Suppofing 
thefe two gentlemen to have tr.eafured the fame tree, and 
not to be miftaken in their admeafurement, this difference 
can only be reconciled by fuppofing that the latter meant 
the fpread of the boughs from the trunk, the former the 
whole fpread or diameter, which we may conceive to have 
increafed in twenty-four years. The traveller Le Bruyn 
reckons about thirty-five or thirty-fix trees remaining on 
Mount Libanus when he was there ; and would perfuade 
us it was not eafy to reckon their number, as is reported 
of the (tones of our Stonehenge on Salilbury-plain. He 
Vol. XX. No. 1384. 
481 
alfo fays that fome of the cones grow dependent, which 
is abundantly confuted by the above-mentioned travel¬ 
lers, and alfo from our own experience. The few cedars 
(till remaining on Mount Libanus are preferved with a 
religious ftrictnefs. On the day of the Transfiguration, 
the Patriarch repairs in proceffion to thefe trees, and 
celebrates a feftival called the Feaft of Cedars. 
We have now probably more cedars in England than 
are left on Mount Libanus. It is matter of furprife to 
me, fays Mr. Miller, that this tree was not more cultivated 
in England formerly; for, till within a few years paft, 
there were but few here; fince it would be a great orna¬ 
ment to barren bleak mountains, where few other trees 
will grow fo well; it being a native of the coldeft parts of 
Mount Libanus, where the fnow continues great part of 
the year. From the obfervations I have made of the 
trees now growing in England, I find that fuch as have 
been been planted in a ftrong, rich, loamy earth, have 
made a poor progrefs, in comparifon with thofe which 
have grown upon a (tony meagre foil. That thefe trees 
are of quick growth, is evident from four of them in the 
botanic garden at Chelfea, which, as I have been credibly 
informed, were planted there in the year 1683, and at that 
time were not above three feet high. Sir Hans Sloane, 
in a letter to Mr. Ray, dated March 7, 1684-5, fays, 
“ I was the other day at Chelfea, and find that the artifices 
ufed by Mr. Watts have been very effeflual for the pre- 
fervation of his plants, infomuch that this fevere enough 
winter has fcarce killed any of his fine plants. One thing 
I much wonder to fee, that the Cedrus Montis Libani, 
the inhabitant of a very different climate, (hould thrive 
here fo well, as without pot or greenhoufe to be able to 
propagate itfelf by layers this fpring. Seeds fown latt 
autumn have as yet thriven very well, and are like to 
hold out. The main artifice I ufed to them, has been to 
keep them from the winds, which feem to give a great 
additional force to the cold, in deltroying tender plants.” 
Two of thefe trees were in 1766 upwards of twelve feet 
and a half in girt, at two feet above the ground, and their 
branches extended more than twenty feet on every fide 
their trunks ; which branches, though they were pro¬ 
duced twelve or fourteen feet above the furface, did at 
every termination hang very near the ground, and thereby 
afford a goodly (hade in the hotteft feafon of the year. 
In Augutt 1793, the girt of the largeft at three feet from 
the ground was twelve feet eleven inches and a half, of 
the Smaller twelve feet and a quarter of an inch, as mea¬ 
fured by fir Jofeph Banks. 
The foil in which thefe trees were planted, is a lean 
hungry fand mixed with gravel, the furface of which is 
fcarcely two feet deep, before a hard rocky gravel appears. 
They (food at four corners of a pond, bricked up within 
two feet of their trunks; fo that their roots, having no 
room to fpread on one fide, were cramped in their growth ; 
but whether their (landing fo near the water might not 
have been advantageous to them, I cannot fay ; but fure 
I am, if their roots had had full fcope in the ground, they 
would have made a greater progrefs. Probably the roots, 
finding theinfelves (lopped by the brick wall, tended 
downwards, and fpread themfelves in the moift earth 
under the water, which promoted greatly the growth of 
the trees ; for fome years after the time of which Mr. 
Miller fpeaks, this pond having been filled up, thefe 
noble trees decayed, and were quickly ruined for want 
of their accuftomed beverage. Lopping or cutting thefe 
trees is very injurious to them, more perhaps than to any 
other of the refinous trees, in retarding their growth : for 
two of the four trees above-mentioned, having been un¬ 
advisedly planted near a green-houfe, when they began to 
grow large, had their branches lopped, to let the fun into 
the houfe, whereby they were fo much checked as to be 
little more than half the fize of the other two. 
All thefe trees produced, for feveral years, large quan¬ 
tities of catkins, or male flowers; but only three of them 
had, in 1766, produced cones; nor was it above thirty- 
6 G five 
