40. When we often meet with the Cedars of _Libanus_, that expression may be used not onely because they grew in a known and neighbour Country, but also because they were of the noblest and largest kind of that Vegetable, and we find the Phœnician Cedar magnified by the Ancients. The Cedar of _Libanus_ is a _coniferous_ Tree, bearing _Cones_ or Cloggs; (not Berries) of such a vastness, that _Melchior Lussy_, a great Traveller, found one upon _Libanus_ as big as seven men could compass. Some are now so curious as to keep the Branches and _Cones_ thereof among their rare Collections. And, though much Cedar Wood be now brought from _America_, yet 'tis time to take notice of the true Cedar of _Libanus_, imployed in the Temple of _Solomon_; for they have been much destroyed and neglected, and become at last but thin. _Bellonius_ could reckon but twenty eight, _Rowolfius_ and _Radzevil_ but twenty four, and _Bidulphus_ the same number. And a later account[231] of some English Travellers saith, that they are now but in one place, and in a small compass, in _Libanus_. [231] _A journey to_ Jerusalem, 1672. [Sidenote: _Uncircumcised Fruit, in_ Levit. 19. 23.] _Quando ingressi fueritis terram, et Plantaveritis in illa ligna Pomifera, auferetis præputia eorum. Poma quæ germinant immunda erunt vobis, nec edetis ex eis. Quarto autem anno, omnis fructus eorum sanctificabitur, laudabilis Domino. Quinto autem anno comedetis fructus._ By this Law they were injoyned not to eat of the Fruits of the Trees which they planted for the _first three years_: and, as the Vulgar expresseth it, to take away the Prepuces, from such Trees, during that time; the Fruits of _the fourth year being holy unto the Lord_, and those of the fifth allowable unto others. Now if _auferre præputia_ be taken, as many learned men have thought, to pluck away the bearing Buds, before they proceed unto Flowers or Fruit, you will readily apprehend the Metaphor, from the analogy and similitude of those Sprouts and Buds, which, shutting up the fruitfull particle, resembleth the preputial part. And you may also find herein a piece of Husbandry not mentioned in _Theophrastus_, or _Columella_. For by taking away of the Buds, and hindering fructification, the Trees become more vigorous, both in growth and future production. By such a way King _Pyrrhus_ got into a lusty race of Beeves, and such as were desired over all _Greece_, by keeping them from Generation untill the ninth year. And you may also discover a physical advantage of the goodness of the Fruit, which becometh less crude and more wholsome, upon the fourth or fifth years production. [Sidenote: _Partition of Plants into Herb and Tree, in_ Gen. 1. 11.]