234 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 29. 
of the same tree in its old age, and a letter now 
before ns, have united to bring to our remembrance a 
promise, long since made, to publish our notes “ On 
the Plants of the Bible.” We will at once set about 
redeeming that promise, and will, as nearly as may be, 
follow their alphabetical array. 
In the 11th and 12th verses of the 10th chapter of 
the 2nd Book of Kings, it is stated that “ The navy of 
Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from 
Ophir great plenty of Almug Trees, and precious 
stones. And the king (Solomon) made of the Almug 
trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s 
house, harps also and psalteries for singers : there came 
no such Almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.” 
Now we shall find, if we refer to the texts which we 
shall insert at the conclusion of our observations, that 
Hiram, King of Tyre, sent timber from Lebanon in 
floats along the sea-coast to Joppa, from whence Solomon 
conveyed it to Jerusalem. It would seem, from some of 
those texts, that the Almug, or Algum trees, came also 
with the Cedar and Fir timber from Lebanon; but this we 
shall see hereafter is not at all irreconcileable with other 
texts, which state as apparently that the Gold, Algum 
trees, and precious stones were brought from Ophir.* 
That such was the fact we have the testimony of 
Josephus, who says, “ The ships from Ophir brought 
precious stones aud Pine trees, which Solomon made 
use of for supporting the Temple and his palace, as also 
for making musical instruments, the harps and psalteries 
of the Levites. The wood which was brought him at 
this time was larger and finer than any that had ever 
been brought before; but let none imagine that these 
Pine trees were like those which are now so named, and 
which take their denomination from the merchants who 
so call them, that they may procure them to bo admired 
by those that purchase them; for those we speak of 
were, to the sight, like the wood of the Eig-tree, but 
whiter aud more shining. Now, we have said thus 
much, that nobody may be ignorant of the difference 
between these sorts of wood, nor unacquainted with the 
nature of the genuine Pine tree, and the uses the King 
made of it.”f ( Antiquit , 1. viii. c. 7.) 
We are of opinion, from these quotations, that the 
enquiry is narrowed to two points. What country 
was intended by Ophir ? and what cone-bearing tree of 
its forests was then known as the Almug ? 
There is no doubt that Ophir was most accessible 
to Solomon from the Bed Sea, for we find that he built 
ships at Ezion-geber, situated on the shore of that sea, 
and that by the aid of mariners sent to him by king 
Hiram, they sailed to Ophir, and returned with gold as 
their freight. We are also told, that once in three years 
the ships returned, having as their freight gold, silver, 
ivory, apes, and peacocks. Now, all these are produc¬ 
tions of Hindostan, and when we know that Josephus 
* 2 Chron. ii. 8, 16 —ix. 10, 26, 28. 1 Kings, x. 22. 
f We are aware that some translators render the Greek name em¬ 
ployed !>y Josephus, “ The Pitch or Torch Tree,” but. even this agrees 
remarkably with the qualities and uses of the Deodar, for Mr. Moorcroft, 
the Indian traveller, observes that its wood is so resinous that laths of 
it are used h candles. 
(Antiquit 1. viii. 0. 4.), Vitringa, Reland, and other good 
authorities were of opinion that Ophir and India are 
identical, we have no difficulty in avowing that that 
opinion is our own. We are quite aware that Michaelis 
Rosenmuller, and others of equal research, have concluded 
that Ophir was some part of the south coast of Arabia, 
and we have no difficulty in assenting to that opinion 
also, for we believe that Ophir w'as a collective name, 
| just as we say the East Indies, which includes all the 
| peninsular of India and the islands and countries beyond [ 
in the China Sea. We have no doubt, those being days 
when the Mariner’s compass was unknown, that the ships 
from Ezion-geber coasted along the southern shores of 
Arabia, and the Persian gulf, the islands at the mouth 
of the Indus, and down the western coast of peninsular 
India, and that all the places they visited were included in 
the general name “ Ophirand let it not be forgotten, in 
support of the opinion, with which we concur, that in 
so doing they would probably visit a town near Goa, 
mentioned by Arrian as Soupparn ; that the Septaagint 
translate Ophir by Soupara, and that the ancient 
Egyptians called India Sophir. 
Whether Ophir be India or the southern part of 
| Arabia, it is in the immediate vicinity of the mouths of 
the Indus, which is important in support of the other 
opinion we have adopted, namely, that the Almug is the 
Cedrus deodarn. 
It is stated in the texts we have quoted, that Almug 
trees came from Lebanon as well as from Ophir, but 
that such as had never been seen at any other time 
came from Ophir. Now, it is a fact strongly confirma¬ 
tory of our opinion, that botanists can discern no 
difference between the Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus 
LibaniJ, aud the Cedar of Northern India (Cedrus 
deodara). “I incline to the opinion,” says Sir W. 
Hooker, “ that if the Deodar of the Himalaya had been 
discovered in a locality nearer to the Cedar of Lebanon, 
botanists would have considered it only a variety of 
that classical tree, and tracing it, as we can do, accord¬ 
ing to the testimony of travellers, from Mount Atlas in 
the west to the chain of Taurus and Altai on the east, 
we may fairly infer that the same species reaches the 
Himalayah range, aud stretches as far as Kamaon.” 
Such being the case, the Jewish writers may well be 
excused for considering the Almug trees of Lebanon and 
those of Ophir as the same, although the gigantic trunks 
from the latter, if they were of the Deodar, might well 
justify the observation, “ there came none such (before) 
nor were seen unto this day.” 
Let us see how the Deodara agrees with what little 
we know of the Almug tree of the Scriptures. That 
those from Ophir were very large is evident; and we 
have this testimony of the Deodar from Major Madden. 
After quoting a measurement of their height as 140 feet, 
he proceeds to observe; “Although the Deodar abounds 
and attains a great girth on mountains thirty miles 
from the plains, all the gigantic specimens on record 
occur near the snowy range. On Choor, not one 
exceeded seventeen feet round at five high (a pretty 
good size too!); but at Sildes, near Looloot, on the 
