CEDAR, or CEDAR. OR LEBANON, a tree much celebrated from the most ancient times for its beauty, its magnificence, and its longevity, as well as for the excellence aud dura bility of its timber. R is often mentioned in Scripture ; it supplied the wood-work of Solo mon's temple; and in the poetry of the Old Testament it is a frequent emblem of pros perity, strength, and stability. It belongs to the natural order conferee, and is the /Anus cedrus of the older botanists; but is now ranked in the genus ales (see Fin), in the genus lari.r (see LAncii), by those who make larix a distinct genus from able., or is made the type of a genus, cedrus, distinguished from larix by evergreen leaves and carpels sepa rating from the axis, and receives the name of C. libani.
Of the celebrated CEDARS OF LEBA.NON, only a few now remain. They consist of a grove of some 400 trees, about three quarters of a mile in circumference, partly old trees and partly young ones. Learned travelers think that most of the trees in the grove may be 200 years old, and several between the ages of 400 and 800 years. There are 12 trees whose age is incalculable—seven standing very near each other; three more a 'little further on, nearly in a line with them; and two, not observed by any recent traveler except lord Lindsay, on the northern edge of the grove, The largest of these two is 63 ft. in circum ference—following the sinuosities of the bark; one of the others measures 49 feet.
These trees are more remarkable for girth than stature, their height hardly exceeding 50 feet. Their age is variously estimated; the rules by which botanists determine the age of trees are not applicable to them, for their stems have ceased to grow in regular concentric rings; they owe their prolonged existence to the superior vitality of a portion of their bark, which has survived the decay of the rest. Russeger is inclined to admit that these trees may possibly number some 2,000 years.
The Arabs, of all creeds, have a traditional veneration for these trees; they believe that an evil fate would surely overtake anv one who shall dare to lay sacrilegious hands on the saints, as they fondly call them. Every year, at the feast of the transfiguration, the Naronites, Greeks, and Armenians mount to the cedars, and celebrate mass on a homely altar of stone at their feet.
The C. has been planted in parks in many parts of Europe; it was introduced into England in the latter part of the 17th c., and a tree at Sion house, London, is now 8 ft. in diameter at 3 ft. above the ground. Even in Inverness-shire it succeeds so well, that trees at Beaufort castle, the scat of lord Lovat, planted in 1783, are now 3 or 4 ft. in diameter, Ou its native mountains, the C. is found at the base of the highest peaks, at an altitude of about 8,000 ft. above the sea. It seems to delight in a dry open soil, where, however, its roots can have access to abundance of water. Although in foliage and some other particulars the 0. considerably resembles the common larch, it differs in form and habit very widely both from the larch and from the pines in general. Its stem bears almost down to the ground irregularly placed branches, often of prodigious size and expanse, which divide irregularly into branchlets. The leaves are dark green, 10 to 15 lines long, pointed, united in clusters of 20 to 30: on the young shoots they are very numerous, and not in clusters; the small branchlets also are crowded together and pensile. The cones are erect, oval, broadly rounded at both ends, about 4 in. long, and 3 in. in diameter; their scales closely crowded, large, and broad. The cones take two years to come to maturity, and hang on the tree for years before their scales come off and their seeds are set free. The wood of the trunk is reddish, and full of a fragrant
resin. The ancients kept their writings in cabinets or boxes of cedar-wood. Extraor dinary indestructibility and other virtues were ascribed to it. It is not nearly so much prized at the present day, because it is soft and light, and apt to crack in drying. This inferiority is, however, not improbably owing to the inferior age of the trees from which the timber is now procured. A resinous substance, called cedar resin, or cedria, flows spontaneously from the trunk of the 0., or from incisions; it resembles mastic, and was anciently used, along with other resins, in the embalming of the dead. It was also used as a medicine. In very ancient times, C. OIL, a kind of turpentine, was prepared from the wood, and was spread on books in order to their better preservation. At the present day, the oil and the resin are scarcely known. The branches of the C., like those of the larch in warm countries, exude a sweet substance, which is known by the name of C. 31ANNA.—The DEODAR or HIMALAYAN C. (ceclrus deodara), a tree held in great veneration by the Hindus, and of which the name is said to be properly deradara, and to signify god-tree, is common in the Himalaya mountains, at elevations of 7,000 to 12,000 ft., forming magnificent forests, and attaining a great size, a height sometimes of 150 ft., with a trunk 30 ft. or more in circumference. an ample head, and spreading branches. It is described as having cones somewhat larger than those of the C. of Lebanon, the scales of the cones falling off as soon as the seed is ripe, and as differing from the C. of Lebanon also in more peusile branches and longer leaves; but Dr. Hooker expresses a strong opinion that they will prove to be really the same species, as well as the C. of AI nEtts (O. Atlantica or African), which is found in the mountainous regions of the n. of Africa. The wood of the deodar is resinous, fragrant, compact, and very durable. It is susceptible of a high polish, and in its polished state has been compared to brown agate. Owing to the abundance of resin, laths of it burn like candles. Its turpentine is very fluid, and although coarse, is much used in India for medical pur poses; and tar and pitch are obtained from the trunk. The deodar has now become very common as an ornamental tree in Britain, although few specimens have yet attained a very considerable size. On account of its extreme gracefulness when young, it is often planted in situations to which large trees are unsuitable, and is to be seen in many suburban parterres.—The name C. is often given to other coniferous trees besides the true cedars. Thus, the Siberian stone pine, or Cembra pine, is called the SIBERIAN C. (see PINE), and a species of fir (abies religiosa) is the RED C. of California (see Fix). A species of cypress (q:v.) is known as WHITE C., and another as the C. or GoA. Several of the trees which bear the name C. are species of juniper (q.v.), among which are the VIRGINIAN C., or RED C. of North America, and the BERMUDA C.—which yield the cedar-wood used for pencils—the SPANISH C. of the s. of Europe, etc. The name C. is even given to trees which have no resemblance to the true cedars, except in the resinous quality of the wood; thus the cedar-wood of Guiana is produced by icka altissima, a tree of the natural order amyridaccce (q.v.); the C. of the Indies (see next article) belongs to the natural order cedrelaceee; and the name BASTARD C. is given in India to a tree of the natural order byttneriacco3 (q.v.).