CHAP. CXIII.

coni'fekjE. ce'drus.

2417

Many other examples might be given; but these will suffice to show the usethe poets have made of this tree.

Properties and Uses. The wood of the cedar is of a reddish white, lightand spongy, easily worked, but very apt to shrink and warp, and by no meansdurable. The horizontal section, as Loiseleur Deslongchamps justly observes,exhibits the annual layers very distinctly marked. Each year has apparentlytwo layers; the’one narrow, close-grained, hard, and of a reddish brown ; andthe other three or four times broader, loose, spongy, and whitish. In general,the section of the trunk of a cedar bears a nearer resemblance to that of thesilver fir, than to that of any other of the .dbietinm. When the tree hasgrown on mountains, the annual layers are much narrower, and the fibremuch finer, than when it has grown on plains; so much so, that a piece ofcedar wood brought from Mount Lebanon by Dr. Pariset, in 1829, and whichhe had made into a small piece of furniture, presented a surface compact,agreeably veined, and variously shaded; and which on the whole may be con-sidered handsome. (Hist, du Cedre, &c., p. 43.) The weight of the wood ofthe cedar, according to Varennes de Fenille, is 29 lb. 4 oz. per cubic foot;but Mussenbrack makes it 42 lb. 14 oz., and Hassenfratz 57 lb. This enormousdifference, says Baudrillart in the Dictkmnaire des Faux et Forets, is enoughto convince us that the wood could not be in the same state of dryness.The average of these weights gives 43 lb. per cubic foot; but it is doubtfulwhether the wood of the cedar weighs so much. Varennes de Fenille con-siders it as the lightest of the resinous woods; and he adds that it containsvery little resin, that its grain is coarse, and that he thinks the wood can beneither so strong nor so durable as it has the reputation of being. He conti-nues, that we cannot suppose that the temples of Jerusalem and Ephesuswere of the dimensions stated; or, if they were, that the wood of the cedar ofLebanon was used in their construction. He is still more incredulous as tothe statue of Diana having been sculptured of so soft a wood, and one thegrain of which was so unequal and subject to crack; besides which, he saysthat the s.i.ell of the wood, so far from being fragrant, greatly resemblesthat of the pine. It is very liable to warp and split in drying, on whichaccount it does not hold nails well (a remark which was made by Pliny);and it is unfit for use, except in large masses. A table which Sir JosephBanks had made out of the Hillingdon cedar was soft, without scent (exceptthat of common deal), and possessed little variety of veining; and the sameremarks will apply to a table which we have had made from the plank alreadyreferred to, as having been kindly presented to us by J. Gostling, Esq., ofWhitton Park. The wood of the cedar burns quickly, throwing out manysparks, though but little heat in comparison with that of the oak or the beech ;though the flame of the cedar wood is more lively and brilliant, on accountof the resin which it contains. The charcoal formed from it is very light,produces little heat, and becomes quickly covered with ashes, like the char-coal of the poplar and of the willow. The bark may be used in tanning;and, according to an analysis made by Professor Chevreuil, its astringent pro-perties are, to that of the oak, as 12’75 is to 19 - 75. The resin of the cedarresembles that of the larch, but it is much less abundant. It flows fromwounds made accidentally or by design in the bark, and from the scales ofthe cones, but no use is made of it. The resin is very abundant in the seeds,being, according to an analysis made by Professor Chevreuil, 41 per cent;while in those of the Pinus Cembra it is 21 per cent, in those of the P. Pinaster24 per cent, and in those of the P. Pinea 9) per cent. The leaves whichfall from the trees remain on the ground for several years before they becomemould; and Loiseleur Deslongchamps, having seen a plantation of cedars of15 years’ growth, with a layer of decaying leaves and mould on the groundunderneath the branches of J in. in thickness, and having learned also thatthis layer under the old trees of Mount Lebanon is above a foot thick, sug-gests the idea of planting the cedar on the poorest soils, with a view ofultimately enriching them, and rendering them fit for the growth of pasture

7 r 2