CEDAR, the sarwat of Arabia, is a commercial term given to the woods of several distinct kinds of forest trees, the timbers of which are distinguished as red and white cedar, Barbadoes and Bermuda cedar, cedar of Lebanon, pencil cedar, bastard cedar, etc., some of them growing in America, some in Europe, and some in Asia. The cedar of Lebanon, so often noticed in Scrip ture, is usually supposed to be Pinus cedrus, called Cedrus Libanus, or cedar of Lebanon. The lofty deodara, a native of the Himalayas, with fragrant and almost imperishable wood, and often called the Indian cedar, has been sometimes referred to the genus Pinus, and sometimes to Abies, Cedrus, or Larix, with the specific name of deodara ; and Dr. Hooker is of opinion that the deodar and the cedar of Lebanon are identical. The cedar wood of Scripture is supposed to be the sandaraeh tree, Thuja articulata. The woods of several of the conifers are called cedars. In India, the term bastard cedar is applied to the Guazama tomentosa ; and the Hymenodictyon excelsum, Chickrassia tabularis, and Cedrela toona are all called cedars. In New South Wales the berm white cedar is applieeto Melia azaderach, and red cedar to that of Flindersia Australis. In China, a kind of cedar, probably a cypress, called Nan-mah, or southern wood, which resists time and insects, is considered peculiarly valuable, and is especially reserved for imperial use and build ings; and the cedar wood of Japan, according to Thunberg, is a species of cypress. The cedar of Guiana is the wood of Idea altissima. The white wood or white cedar of Jamaica is Bignonia leucoxylon. The word cedar,' in the United States, is applied to various genera of the pine family. The white cedar of the southern swamps is a cypress ; the wood of Juniperus Virginiana is called red or pencil cedar, that of J. Bermudiana
is called Bermuda cedar, and that of J. Barbadensis is called Barbadoes cedar, while the juniper of the north of Spain and south of France and of the Levant is from J. oxycedrus. Tho white cedar of North America, a less valuable wood than the red cedar, is yielded by Cnpressus thyoides. The cedar of /New Zealand is Hartighsea spectabilis. The cedar of the Amazon is from the Cedrela odornta of Von Martins. Under the term cedar, Colonel Frith described a reddish-coloured wood of Palghat, specific gravity as a large tree, wood aromatic and used for furniture; and under the name of cedar-root he mentioned a very aromatic wood, used for ornamental• furniture in Palghat.• These two are possibly from the Cedrela toona. The wood of the cedar of Lebanon, as now met with, is not in much esteem; but that of the Cedrus deodara of the Himalaya really possesses all the good qualities for which those of Lebanon were praised. Specimens of the wood of the Indian cedar, Cedrus deodara, and of the cypress, Cupressus torulosa, from the Himalayas, were shown by Dr. Royle at the Exhibition of 1851 ; the former has been introduced into Eng land as a beautiful ornamental tree, but appears to promise well as a useful timber tree, as the wood works well and freely. The bastard cedar are woods of Cedrela toona, Roxb., and of Guazama tomentos,a, Knuth ; and the Goa cedar is the Cupressus Lusitanica.—Faulkner ; Dr. Hooker ; Holtzapfel ; M'Culloch ; Williams' Middle King dom, p. 275 ; Burton's City of the Salt Lake ; Harris, Nat. Hist. of Bible.