2408

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

Traite pratique de la Culture des Pins, p. 315,, observes : — “ There appearsto be an error in the statement that Pallas found the cedar in Siberia , and onthe Altaic Mountains . M. Ferry, a literary man, who resided three years inSiberia , has published a paper in the Bibliotheque Physico-economique, in whichhe proves that the tree called by the French translator of Pallas’s Travels thecedar, was, in fact, Pin us Cembra ; the Russian name for which is kedr. Headds, in confirmation of this, that Pallas, in his Flora Rossica, does not men-tion the cedar of Lebanon , though he speaks fully of P. Cembra (FI. Ross.,p. 4.); stating that he found it both in forests by itself, and intermixed withother trees ; and that it preferred cold moist places to dry ground. M. Ferryadds that Pallas, in his Travels, invariably calls the trees he mentions by their'popular names in their native countries; and that the French translator,meeting with the word kedr in the German work, fancied that it must meancedar, and translated it accordingly.” M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps has alsonoticed this error in an article entitled Histoire du Cedre du Liban, publishedin the Annales de I’Agric. Franf., for 1837, a copy of which we have receivedsince this sheet was in type.

History. The first account we have of the cedar of Lebanon is that contained in the Bible , wherewe are told that Moses commanded the lepers among the Israelites to make an offering of two spar-rows, cedar wood, scarlet (that is a lock of wool twice dyed), and hyssop. (Levit., xiv. 4. 6.) Thehouses in which lepers had dwelt were purified in the same manner, (Ibid,, 49, 51, and 52.) WhenMoses and Aaron were ordered to sacrifice a red heifer (Numbers, xix. 6.), they were also com-manded to throw cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet into the midst of the burning sacrifice j the ashesof which were gathered up to serve as a purification from sin. When Solomon rebuilt the templeof Jerusalem , he obtained permission from Hiram, king of Tyre, to cut down the cedar and firnecessary from Mount Lebanon ; and for this purpose he sent fourscore thousand hewers to cutdown the trees. There was also a palace built by Solomon , which was called the House of the Forestof Lebanon, from the great quantity of cedar used in its construction. Solomon is stated tohave paid to Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of pure oil,annually, while the work was in progress; and, when it was completed, he ceded to him twentyvillages in Galilee. In the Psalms, there are frequent allusions to the cedar: — “The righteousshall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon .” “ The hills were coveredwith its shadow, and the boughs thereof were like goodly cedars,” &c. In the Book of Ezekiel isthe following striking passage : —“ Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon , with a shadowingshroud of a high stature ; and his top was among thick boughs. The waters made him great; thedeep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little riversunto all .the trees of the field, therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field,and his boughs were multiplied j and his branches became long, because of the multitude ofthe waters where he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, andunder his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under hisdwelt all great nations.” (Ezekiel, xxxi. 3, 4, 5, and 6.) Many other passages might be quoted,but these will suffice to show the very frequent allusions to the tree in Holy Writ. Some persons,however, suppose that the cedar of the Bible is not that of Mount Lebanon ; as the wood of thelatter, though slightly fragrant, is not durable, and the tree cannot be called very lofty. It is possiblethat the wood of old trees, growing in their native habitat, may be much harder, of finer grain, andconsequently less liable to corrupt, than the timber of young trees grown rapidly in this country ; and,thougn there is no tree now existing on Mount Lebanon , or elsewhere, of very lofty stature, theterms employed probably alluded rather to the grandeur and magnificence of the tree, than to itsactual height. Some writers have supposed that the cedar of the Bible was a kind of juniper j othersthat it was the CSdrus Deodbra ; and some, that it might be the Th Oja artioulata ; but the ex pres-sion of the Psalmist, when, in allusion to the flourishing state of a people, he says, “they snailspread their branches like the cedar,” seems clearly to allude to the cedar of Lebanon .

In profane history, many writers mention the usefulness and durability of the cedar. DiodorusSiculus tells us that Sesostris the Great, king of Egypt , built a vessel of cedar, 280 cubits long,, wmenwas covered with gold both within and without. (Lib. i. $ 2.) Theophrastus and Pliny say that tneEgyptians used the cedar instead of the pine, which did not grow in their country (Theoph-^ hb._ v.cap. 8.; Plin., lib. xvi. cap. 40.); and they are said to have used the extract of cedar, mixed wunother drugs, to preserve their mummies. The largest cedar recorded in ancient history is one wmenwas employed to make a galley for King Demetrius, which had eleven ranks of oars ; > but tntftree, as it grew in the Isle of Cyprus , was probably the evergreen cypress : its length was 130 ft., a ®!its thickness 18 ft. The Emperor Caligula had constructed of the wood of the cedar what be£ a i":Liburnian ships, of which the poops were enriched with precious stones, and the sails were of 'ent colours; and which contained baths, and dining-rooms decorated with painting and carvin ®|(Suet, in Caligula, cap . xxxvii.; Plin., lib. xiii. cap. 5.) The ancients considered the cedar as aincorruptible Kind of wood, which would last for ever; and for this reason they made with it tnetemples, and the statues of their gods and kings. Virgil says,—

“ Quin etiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum

Antiqua e cedro.” JEneid. vii. \H-

“ Before the gates, a venerable band,

In cedar carved, the-Latian monarchs stand.” Pitt's trans.

According to Vitruvius (lib. iii. cap. 9.), the leaves of the papyrus, and other objects, were rubbewith the resin of the cedar, an oil, or juice, which he calls cedria, in order to preserve them n.the worms \ as, according to Pliny and others, it did the Egyptian mummies. (Plin., hb-* •cap. 11.; Hiod. Sic., lib. i. \ 2.) Vitruvius also mentions the Juntperus Ox^cedrus, but clear 'y te( jtinguishes it from the great cedar, which is supposed to be the cedar of Lebanon . The ce . eD u ic f,temple of Diana at Ephesus , which was accounted one of the seven wonders of the world, V. ^took 220 years in building, and which was burned down to the ground the night AlexandeGreat was born, was principally constructed of cedar. Pliny tells us of a temple of Apollo at _ ,(the well-known city of that name in Africa ), in which was found cedar timber that, thougn2000 years old, was perfectly sound. At Saguntum, in Spain, continues Pliny , was a templecrated to Diana, which was built 200 years before the destruction of Troy ; and it contained a •