Rosenmiiller states that ' the word eres, which occurs so frequently in the O. T., is, by the ancient translators, universally rendered cedar' (xlSpos). Therefore it has been inferred by him, as well as others, that the cedar of Lebanon must be in tended : but the name does not appear to have been applied specially to this tree by the ancients. Thus the KeSpos of Dioscorides is supposed by Sprengel, in his edition of that author, to be a spe cies ofjuniper, and Dr. Lindley, the editor of the last numbers of Sihthorpe's Flora Graca, agrees with him : icapos, juniperus oxycedrus, vel potius J. Phcenicea, secundum Sprengelium, cui assentio, Kg Spos umcpd, juniperus communis.' J. oxycedrus is the brown-berried juniper, and J. Phcenicea is the Phoenician juniper or cedar, while J. Lycia, the Lycian juniper or cedar, is cedrus Phcenicea altera Plinii et Theophrasti. These have already been mentioned under the article BEROSH.
Pliny, speaking of the plants of Syria, says, Juniperi similem habent Phcenices et cedrum minorem. Duo ejus genera, Lycia et Phoenicia, differunt folio : nam gum durum, acutum, spino sum habet, oxycedros vocatur, ramosa et nodis infesta : altera odore prstat. Fructum ferunt myrti magnitudine, dulcern sapore. Et majoris cedri duo genera : gum floret, fructum non fert.
Frugifera non floret : et in ea antecedentem fruc tum occupat novas. Semen ejus cupresso simile. Quidam cedrelaten vocant. Ex hac resina lauda tissima ' (Hist. Nat. xiii. it). The conclusion of this passage, as translated by Holland, is, and the timber of it is everlasting : wherefore in old time they were wont to make the images of the gods of this wood, as it appeareth by the statue of Apollo Sosianus, made of cedar wood brought from Seleucia.' Again (xvi. 39), ' as for cedars, the best simply be those that grow in Candia, Africke, and Syrie. This vertue hath the oile of cedar, that if any wood or timber be thoroughly anointed therewith it is subject neither to worm nor moth, nor yet to rottennesse.' The greater part of this account of the different kinds of cedar is adopted from Theophrastus (iii. 12) ; though, no doubt, the latter was also acquainted with a large cedar, as appears from lib. v. c. 9, where, speaking of Syria, he says, Elie enim cedri in montibus, cum longitudine, turn crassitudine prx stantissimx nascuntur.' Quintus Curtius also uses the term ill pos in a general sense, when he says of the palace of Persepolis, multa cedro xdifi cata erat regia' If we proceed to compare the several passages of Scripture in which the word Eres occurs, we shall equally find that one plant is not strictly applicable to them all. The earliest notice of the cedar is in Lev. xiv. 4, 6, where we are told that Moses commanded the leper that was to be cleansed to make an offering of two sparrows, cedar-wood, wool dyed in scarlet, and hyssop ; and in ver. 49, 51, 52, the houses in which the lepers dwell are directed to he purified with the same materials. Again, in Num. xix. 6, Moses and Aaron are commanded to sacrifice a red hei fer : ' And the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet.' As remarked by Lady Call cott (Scrip. Herbal, p. 92), ' The cedar was not a native of Egypt, nor could it have been procured in the desert without great difficulty ; but the juni per is most plentiful there, and takes deep root in the crevices of the rocks of Mount Sinai.' That
some, at least, of the cedars of the ancients were a species of juniper is evident from the passages we have quoted ; the wood of most of them is more or less aromatic. The ancients, it may be remarked, threw the berries of the juniper on funeral piles, to protect the departing spirit from evil influences, and offered its wood in sacrifice to the infernal gods, because they believed its pre sence was acceptable to them. They also burned it in their dwelling-houses to keep away demons. It is curious that, in the remote parts of the Hima layan Mountains, another species of this genus is similarly employed, as the present writer has men tioned elsewhere (Himalayan Botany, p. 350) : ' Here there is also another species, Yuniperus religiosa, Royle, called gogul by the natives, and employed for burning as incense in their religious ceremonies.' At a later period we have notices of the various uses to which the wood of the eres was applied, as 2 Sam. v. 1 i ; vii. 2-7 ; i Kings v. 6, 8, so ; vi. 9, 10, 15, 16, 18, 20 ; vii. 2, 3, 7, I I, 12 ; ix. II; X. 27 ; I Chron. xvii. 6 ; 2 Chron. ii. 8 ; ix. 27 ; xxv. 18. In these passages we are informed of the negociations with Hiram, King of Tyre, for the supply of cedar-trees out of Lebanon, and of the uses to which the timber was applied in the construction of the Temple, and of the king's palace ; he ' covered the house with beams and boards of cedar ; " the walls of the house within were covered with boards of cedar ; ' there were ' cedar pillars,' and ' beams of cedar ;' and the altar was of cedar. In all these passages the word eres is employed, for which the Arabic translation, according to Celsius (Loc. cit.), gives sunobar as the synonyme. There is nothing distinctive stated re specting the character of the wood, from which we might draw any certain conclusion, further than that, from the selection made and the con stant mention of the material used, it may be fairly inferred that it must have been considered as well fitted, or rather, of a superior quality, for the pur pose of building the Temple and palace. From this, however, proceeds the difficulty in admitting that what we call the cedar of Lebanon was the only tree intended by the name Ares. For modern experience has ascertained that its wood is not of a superior quality. To determine this point, we must not refer to the statements of those who take their descriptions from writers who, indeed, de scribe cedar-wood, but do not prove that it was derived from the cedar of Lebanon. The term ' cedar' seems to have been as indefinite in ancient as in modern times. Now we find it applied to the wood of Yunipersis virginiana, which is red or pencil cedar ; and to that of J. Bermudiana or Bermuda cedar. J. oxycedrus yields the cedar of the north of Spain and south of France, but the term is also applied to many other woods, as to white cedar, that of Melia Azedarach ; and Indian cedar, that of Cedrela Toona.