THE CEDAR OF LEBANON - Cedrus libani

By Tony Haskell
Somerset Gardens Trust – Autumn 1998

Another in the occasional series of extracts from ' The Forest Trees of Britain' by the Rev CA Johns BA, FLS dated 1894. - Compiled by Tony Haskell

This majestic tree cannot be considered as native to our shores records show that it was probably brought to this country as late as the mid 18th Century but, nevertheless it graces many stately grounds, since its introduction and is therefore included in this series.

The Cedars of Lebanon are frequently mentioned in the Bible, and from their majestic growth are made an emblem of regal state. In their native habitat they were formally very abundant, but being much sought after, for their timber, which was considered imperishable, their number is now greatly diminished. It was used in great quantities in the building of the Temple and Solomon's Palace at Jerusalem, and by the Tyrians, the masts of ships were made of Cedar. The famous cedars of Lebanon are situated (according to sources obtained by Rev Johns) on a small eminence in a valley at the foot of the highest part of the mountain. The land on the mountain side has a sterile aspect, and the trees are more remarkable as they stand all together about fifty of them in one clump, and are the only trees to be seen in this part of Lebanon.

The Cedar is a native, not only of Mount Lebanon, from where it derives its name, but also of Northern Africa, where it was once found in abundance.

Of the many accounts that have been published of the famous grove of Cedars on Mount Lebanon the following is of interest . . . "These noble trees grow amongst the snow, near the highest part of Lebanon and are remarkable for their age and largeness. They measure in girth twelve yards and six inches, and thirty seven yards in the spread of its boughs."

These trees are the most renowned natural monuments in the universe; religion, poetry and history have all equally celebrated them. The Arabs entertain a traditional veneration for these trees, attributing to them a vegetative power which enable them to live eternally, and an 'intelligence' which causes them to manifest signs of wisdom and foresight they are said to understand the changes of the seasons as they stir their vast branches, inclining them towards heaven or earth accordingly as the snow proposes to fall or melt. It is said that the snows have no sooner begun to fall then these Cedars turn their branches to rise insensibly, gathering their points upwards, forming, as it were, a pyramid or parasol. Assuming this new shape, they can sustain the immense weight of snow remaining upon them for so long.

The trees' introduction to Europe has been told in a most pleasing manner as follows, taken from an extract from Sharpe's London Magazine.

Many years ago a Frenchman who was travelling in the Holy Land, found a little seedling among the Cedars of Lebanon, which he longed to bring away as a memorial of his travels. He took it up tenderly, with all the earth about its little roots, and, for a want of a better flowerpot, planted it carefully in his hat, and there he kept it and tended it.

The voyage home was rough and tempestuous, and so much longer than usual, that the supply of fresh water in the ship fell short, and they were obliged to measure it out most carefully to each person. The captain was allowed two glasses a day; the sailers who had the work of the ship on their hands, one glass each; and the poor passengers but half a glass. In such a scarcity you may suppose the poor Cedar had no allowance at all. But our friend the traveller felt for it as his child, and each day shared with it his small half glass of precious water; and so it was, that when the vessel arrived at the port, the traveller had drunk so little water that he was almost dying, and the young Cedar so much that, behold, it was a noble and fresh little tree,' six inches high.

At Customhouse the officers, who are always suspicious of smuggling, wished to empty the hat, for they would not believe but that something more valuable in their eyes lay hid beneath the moist mould. They thought of lace or of diamond, and began to thrust their fingers into the soil. But our poor traveller implored then so earnestly to spared his tree, and talked to them so eloquently of all that we read in the Bible of the Cedar of Lebanon, telling them of David's house and Solomon's Temple that the men's hearts were softened, and they suffered the young Cedar to remain undisturbed in its strange dwelling. From thence it was carried to Paris, and planted most carefully in the Jardin des Plantes.

The Cedar first produced cones in England in the Chelsea Garden about 1766, since which time vast numbers of trees have been raised both from native as well as foreign cones.

The needleshaped leaves are shorter than those of the Scotch Fir, and grow in bunches of more than twenty, like those of the Larch, but they are of a firmer texture, and are not deciduous. The cones, which stand erect, and in their young state are very conscious, are of a bright green colour and an oval shape; they adhere firmly to the branches, which are covered with a greyish brown bark. The horizontal branches, which are very large in proportion to the size of the trunk, are arranged in distinct layers or stages and form a broadly pyramidal head. The extremities of the lower branches generally droop so as almost to touch the ground, when the tree stands alone; but if planted in masses, it bears a clean straight trunk, crowned by a depressed head. The beauty of the tree consists in the strength and elegant symmetry of its widely spreading branches. The resin which exudes from the stem and cones is said to be as soft a balsam; the smell is very similar to that of the balm of Mecca. Everything, indeed, about this tree has a strong balsamic perfume, and hence the whole forest is so perfumed with fragrance that walk through it is delightful. This is probably the "small of Lebanon" to which reference is made in Hosea xiv. 6.

So durable was Cedarwood considered by the ancients, that, "to be worthy of being kept in Cedar," dignus cedro, passed into a proverbial expression of anything thought worthy of immortality. An oil extracted from it, and called cedreum, was said to render.imperishable all substances which were anointed with it.

The value of the timber of the Cedar as a building material is now thought to have been overrated by the ancients. it is reddish white, with streaks, and does not seem to be much harder than deal. It is sweet scented only for the first year after being felled; it soon begins to shrink and warp, and is said to be by no means durable. But this is rather the character of English grown Cedar than of timber which has come to maturity in its native mountains.

September 10, 1999