172 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET 
If this was once united iu one solid stem, it must, with 
justice, indeed, be looked upon as a very wonderful 
phenomenon in the vegetable world, and deservedly 
styled the glory of the forest. I have since been told by 
Canonico Recupero. an ingenious ecclesiastic of this 
place, that he was at the expense of carrying up 
peasants with tools to dig round this wonderful tree, 
and. he assures me. upon his honor, that he found all these 
stems united below ground an one root. I alleged that 
so extraordinary an object must have been 'celebrated 
by many of their writers: he told me that it had, and 
produced many examples. 1 ' 
We take from Rhind's Vegetable Kingdom the illus¬ 
tration of this remarkable tree, which was from the 
original drawing of Houel. and is believed to be as 
nearly accurate as possible. 
Iu point of interest, there are but few trees possessing 
more than the Cedar of Lebanon ( Ccdrm Libanum). 
This celebrated tree is a native of the coldest parts of 
the mountains of Libanus. Amanus. and Taurus : but 
it is not now to be found in great numbers in any of 
these localties. ** The Lebanon,” say the Arabian poets, 
" bears winter on his head, spring on his shoulders, and 
autumn in his bosom, while summer sleeps at his feet: 
and in confirmation of the truth of the sentiment a few 
venerable Cedars yet remain: they form a beautiful 
grove on the line of route from Baalbec to the coast. 
They are large and massy, rearing their heads to an 
enormous height, and spreading their branches afar: 
but they have a strangely wild aspect, travelers say. as 
if wrestling with some invisible person bent on their 
destruction while life is still strong in them : but they 
are gradually disappearing. In 1575 there were found 
twenty-four standing in a circle: in 1630 Fermanil 
counted twenty-two; there are now seven standing 
near each other, and a few more almost in a line with 
them— 
“ Standing in their strength erect. 
Defying the battled storm.” 
The timber of this tree is of the most enduring char¬ 
acter. it is so bitter that no insect will touch it, and it 
seems to be proof against time itself. We are told that 
the timber in the Temple of Apollo at Utica was found 
undecayed after the lapse of two thousand years ; and 
that a beam in the oratory of Diana, at Saguntum in 
Spain, was carried from Zante two centuries before the 
Trojan war. Some of the most celebrated erections of 
antiquity were constructed of this tree. “Solomon 
raised a levy of thirty thousand men out of all Israel; 
and he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, 
by courses: and he had three-score and ten thousand 
that bore burthens, and four-score thousand of hewers 
in the mountains. And he covered the temple with 
beams and boards of cedar. And the cedar of the 
house within was carved with lumps and flowers. All 
was cedar; there was no stone seen.” Thus writes the 
sacred historian, who mentions that the same monarch 
had a palace of cedar in the forest of Lebanon. Ancient 
write vs notice that- the ships of Sesostris, the Egyptian 
Conqueror, one of them two hundred and eighty cubits 
long, were formed of this timber, as was also the 
gigantic statue of Diana in the temple at Ephesus. 
In addition to the durability of its timber, the Cedar 
is. iu its appearance, the most majestic of trees; and 
when it stands alone in a situation worthy of it, it is 
hardly possible to conceive a finer vegetable ornament. 
There is a firmness in the bark and a stability iu the 
trunk, in the mode in which that lays hold of the 
ground, and iu the form of the branches and their in¬ 
sertion into the trunk, not found in any other of the 
order, or scarcely iu any other tree. The foliage, too. is 
superior to that of any other of the tribe, each branch 
being perfect in its form : the points of the leaves spread 
upwards into beautiful little tufts, and the whole upper 
surface of the branch, which droops in a graceful curve 
toward the extremity, having the semblance of velvet. 
The color is also fine; it is a rich green, wanting the 
bluish tint of the pine and fir. and the lurid and gloomy 
one of the cypress. 
The prophet Ezekiel gives a beautiful description of 
this Cedar: “ Behold the Assyrian was a Cedar in 
Lebanon, with fair branches, and of a high statue ; and 
his top was among thick boughs. His boughs were 
multiplied and his branches became long. The Fir 
trees were not like his boughs, nor the Chestnut trees 
like his branches: nor any tree in the garden of God 
like unto him in beauty.” 
Whether the Cedars of Lebanon were exhausted by 
the four-score thousand axes of the King of Israel, or 
whether they have decayed in consequence of some 
variation of climate, it is impossible to sax - ; but modern 
travelers represent that .very few now exist, though 
some are of immense bulk, about thirty-six feet in 
circumference and quite undecaved. 
NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
May Meeting. 
The exhibition which took place on the 1st instant 
was well attended; and though, as a whole, inferior to 
that of the April meeting, yet in many points it was 
highly satisfactory. The leading features were Orchids, 
Roses, and mixed collections. The visitors were, on 
this occasion, as formerly, gratified with a sight of 
some of Mrs. Morgan’s fine orchids, as well as those 
fine speecimens from Mr. White’s collection, that Mr. 
Burnett is handling with much skill and eare.^ Mr. 
Such, of South Amboy, N. J., sent some fine specimens, 
including a fine plant of Cattleya Mossiae, one of the 
best we ever seen on exhibition, Mr. Buchanan, the 
veteran Orchid grower, showed some fine Vandas and 
other choice specimens. A large collection of well- 
grown Cinnerarias and Calceolarias, were objects of 
considerable interest. Thorpe’s seedling Geraniums 
and Carnations, continue to monopolize the attention of 
the visitors, and will, so long as he shows such marked 
improvement in the development of those useful flow¬ 
er's. The display of Ferns, from Mr. Roenbeck’s collec¬ 
tion was simply superb. Fine specimens of the leading 
kinds under cultivation were noticed; conspicuous 
among them was a fine plant of Cibotium, one of the 
most ornamental of this noble family. The collections 
of cut flowers, from Mr. Such, Mr. Colgate, and Messrs. 
Halloek & Thorpe, were remarkably fine. 
