Nat. Ord. (Natural Order) Coniferae. Lin. Syst. (Linnean System) Monoecia, Monadelphia. The Cedar of Lebanon is universally admitted by European authors to be the noblest evergreen tree of the old world. Its native sites are the elevated valleys and ridges of Mount Lebanon and the neighbouring heights of the lofty groups of Asia Minor. There it once covered immense forests, but it is supposed these have never recovered from the inroads made upon them by the forty score thousand hewers employed by Solomon to procure the timber for the erection of the Temple. Modern travelers speak of them as greatly diminished in number, though there are still specimens measuring thirty-six feet in circumference. Mount Lebanon is inhabited by numerous Maronite Christians, who hold annually a celebration of the Transfiguration under the shade of the existing trees, which they call the ﾓFeast of Cedars.ﾔ
