If, on the other hand, we consider some of the re- maining passages of Scripture, we cannot fail to per- ceiye that they forcibly apply to the cedar of Lebanon, tod to the cedar of Lebanon only. Thus, in Psa. xcii, 12, it is said, ** The righteous shall flourish like a palm- tree, and spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon. " But Ez^el (chap, xxxi) is justly adduced as giving the most magnificent, and, at the same time, the most graphic description of this celebrated tree (comp. Ho- mer, 77. xiii, 869 ; Virgil, ^».ii, 626; v,447; Horace, Od. iv, 6). The other principal passages in wliich the cedar is mentioned are 1 Kings iv, 33 ; 2 Eangs xix, 23; Job xl, 17; Psalms xxix, 5; Ixxx, 10; civ, 16; cxlviii, 9; Cant, i, 17; v, 15; viii, 9; Isa. ii, 13; ix, 10; xiv, 8; xxxvii, 24; xli, 19; xliv, 14; Jer. xxii, 7, 14, 23; Ezek. xvii, 3, 22, 23; Amos ii, 9; Zeph. ii, 14 ; Zech. xi, 1 , 2 ; and in the Apocrypha, Ecclns. xxiv, IS; 1,12. SeeTBBE.
The conditions to be fulfilled in order to answer all the descriptions in the Bible of a cedar-tree are that it should be tall (Isa. ii, 13), spreading (Ezek. xxxi, 3), abundant (1 Kings v, 6, 10), fit for beams, pillars, and boards (1 Kings vi, 10, 15 ; vii, 2), masts of ships (Ezek. xxvii, 5), and for carved work, as images (Isa. xliv, 14). To these may be added qualities ascribed to ce- dax-wood by profane writers. Pliny speaks of the ce- dar of Crete, Africa, and Syria as being most esteemed and imperishable. In Egypt and Syria ships were baih of cedar, and in C3i>rus a tree was cut down 120 feet long and proportionately thick. The durability of cedar was proved, he says, by the duration of the cedar roof of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, which had lasted 400 years. At Utica the beams, made of Numidlan cedar, of a temple of Apollo had lasted 1178 years I (Pliny, Hut, Nat, xiii, 5 ; xvi, 40). Yitruvius (ii, 9) speaira of the antiseptic properties of the oil of cedar (comp. Josephus, Ant. viii, 5, 2 ; Sandys, TVotwZf, p. 166, 167). The corresponding Arabic word, arZy is used to express not only the cedar of Lebanon, but also at Aleppo the Pimu syltfestris, which is abundant both near that city and on Lebanon. A similar statement will apply also to the Thuja artiadaJta of Mount Atlas, irhich is called by the Arabs «l<xrz, a name that led to the mistake as to the material of the 'Cordova roof from its similarity to the Spanish akroe (Niebuhr, DeKT. de VAraJbie^ p. 131, etc., and QueM^ums^ xc, 169, etc. ; Pliny, H, N,, xiii, 11, 16 ; Hay, West Barb, c. iv, 49; Gesenius, Thea. p. 143). Besides the trees which belong to the one grove, known by the name of " the Cedars,'* groves and green woods of cedar are found in ether parts of the range (Buckingliam, TravtU among t*e Arofts, p. 468 ; Eng, Cgdopadiay s. v. Syria ; Robin- wn, new ed. otJUg. ill, 593 ; Burckhardt, Syria, p. 19; Loudon, Arboretum, iv, 240n6, 2407 ; Celsius, Hierobo- fan. i, 89; Belon, Obs. de arboribus cow/cTM, ii, 162, 165, 166). The re- mains of wood used in the Nineveh - .^ t:z.
IKdaces were supposed by Layard to be cedar, a supposition confirmed l)y the insciiiptions, which show that tlie Aseyrian kings imported cedar from Ulwnon. This wood is now proved bfmicroscopic examination tobe vew (Layard, Nin. and Bah, p. 356, 357 ; Loudon, ut tup, p. 2431). See Fir.
2. The modem cbdab of Leba- 50H is well known to be a widely- spreading tree, generally from 50 to 80 feet high, and, when standmg sin- gly, often covering a space with its Inuchee the diameter of which is much greater than its height The
Cedar of Lebanon {CtdruB LibanO,
horizontal branches, when the tree is exposed on all sides, are v&ry large in proportion to the trunk, being disposed in distinct layers or stages, and the distance to which they extend diminishes as they approach the top, where tl^ey form a pyramidal head, broad in pro- portion to its height. The branchlets are disposed in a flat, fan-like manner on the branches (see Shelby, Forest Trees, p. 522). The leaves, produced in tufts, are straight, about one inch long, slender, nearly cylindri- • cal, tapering to a point, and are on short footstalks. The nude catkins are single, solitary, of a reddish hue, about two inches long, terminal, and turning upwards. The female catkins are short, erect, roundish, and rather oval ; they change after fecundation into oval oblong cones, which, when they approach maturity, become from 2} inches to 5 inches long. Every part of the cone abounds with resin, which sometimes exudes from be- tween the scales. As its leaves remain two years on the branches, and as every spring contributes a fresh supply, the tree is an evergreen, in this resembling other members of the fir family, which, the larches ex- cepted, retain the same suit for a year or upward?, and drop the old foliage so gradually as to render the ^* fall of the leaf" in their case imperceptible. As far as is at present known, the cedar of Lebanon is con- fined in Syria to one valley of the Lebanon range, viz. that of the Kedisha River, which flows ih)m near the highest point of the range westward to the Mediterra- nean, and enters the sea at the port of Tripoli. The