CHAP. CXIII.

coni'feha:. cf/drus.

2407

trees,” he says, “are from 3ft. to 16ft. French, in circumference, andtheir height exceeds 50ft. French. I suppose,” he adds/, “that they owetheir preservation to their being situated on a mountain difficult of access,and at a distance from towns where their wood could be used, and to whichfrom their present habitat, it could now be only transported om the backsof animals.” (Anti. Scien. Nat., 2. s., vol. i. p.235.) The cedar has also beenlately discovered on Mount Atlas, whence cones, and specimens of thebranches, leaves, and wood, have been sent by Mr. Drummond Hay, theBritish consul at Tangier, to Mr. Lambert ; and specimens have also beenreceived from Morocco by P. B. Webb, Esq. The probability is, that therange of the tree not only extends over the whole of that group of moun-tains which is situated between Damascus and Tripoli in Syria, and whichincludes the Libanus and Mounts Amanus and Taurus of antiquity, andvarious other mountains, but that its distribution on the mountainous re-gions of the north of Africa is extensive ; though of the botany of theselatter regions scarcely anything is at present known. The ancient writerswho mention the cedar state that it had many different habitats; andTheophrastus and Pliny make it a native of Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, &c.;but, as they included the junipers, and probably several other trees, underthe general name of Cedrus, no reliance can be placed on their testimony.The cedar has been said by some authors, both Continental and British,to be a native of Mounts Amanus and Taurus, and of Siberia; but, thoughthe first statement is probably true, the second, as will hereafter be shown,is decidedly erroneous. Loiseleur Deslongchamps in the Nouveau DuHamel, and Baudrillart in the Dictionnaire des Faux et Forets, inform usthat Belon found the cedar growing on Mount Amanus and Mount Taurus;and that Pallas states, in his Observations fades dans un Voyage, &c., thathe found it in the countries between the Wolga and the Tobol, in Siberia,and on the Altaic Mountains, Baudrillart adding that he had been informedby a Russian officer in the administration of the forests, that the wood of thecedars found in Siberia was so soft and so brittle, as to be unfit for the con-struction of ships. Mr. Lambert also quotes Pallas, to prove that the cedar,in Siberia, does not thrive so well in dry as in moist ground.

Belon, who wrote about 1550, mentions the cedar among the “ singulari-ties ” observed by him during his travels in the East (see Les Observ., &c.,p. 162. 166.); and states that it grows not only on Mount Libanus, “onwhichsome remain even to this day, planted, as it is thought, by Solomon himself; ”but also “ on the mountains Taurus and Amanus, in cold stony places.”He adds that the merchants of the factory of Tripoli, in Syria, told himthat “ the cedar grew on the declivity of Mount Lebanon next that city,and that the inhabitants of Syria made boats of it, for want of the pinetree.” In Belon’s treatise, De Arboribus Coniferis, published in 1553, theauthor says he was told that the cedar of Solomon is found on Mount Le-banon, and also on Amanus and Taurus, and on the mountains above Nicea ;but nowhere in the Isle of Crete. He then mentions several kinds of juniper,all of which he calls cedars; and states it to be his opinion, that the greatcedar of Mount Lebanon was not the wood used for building Solomon’stemple, (p. iv.) In another page, after relating his visit to Mount Lebanon,he says, “ Right true and excellent are the trees of Mount Lebanon.” Heafterwards describes their appearance and mode of growth, adding: “ The cedarsthat we saw on Amanus and Taurus were very similar to these. They grow inmoist places, like those in which the spruce fir (picea, .d'bies L.) delights; andthey are also found in moist valleys : — Cedros quas in Amano et Tauro vidi-mus, eandem cum praedictis habere similitudinem comperimus. In humidis natiquemadmodum picea, oblectatur, atque etiam convalles humorem habentessequi.” He adds that these trees grow somewhat like the silver fir (abies,Picea L.), but have a portion of the trunk smooth (glabro), and unclothed. Itis very probable, the trees found by Belon on Mounts Amanus and Tauruswere not cedars of Lebanon, but the Pinus Cembra. With regard to theassertion, that Pallas found the cedar in Siberia, M. Delamarre, in his