# The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 3/Cedrus

The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland was a multi-volume work, privately published between 1906 and 1913. The third volume was published 1908. The plates of this volume are inserted in the volume
CEDRUS
    Cedrus, Lawson, Agric. Man. 379 (1836); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2402 (1838); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 439 (1880); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx. 30 (1893).
    Larix, Miller, Dict. No. 3 (1724) (ex parte).
    Pinus, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1001 (1753) (ex parte).
    Pinus, section Cedrus, Parlatore in DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 407 (1864).
    Abies, Poiret in Lamarck, Dict. vi. 510 (1804) (ex parte).
Trees belonging to the tribe Abietineæ of the order Coniferæ, with evergreen foliage, borne, for the most part, in tufted flat masses on the ramifications of the branches, which arise irregularly and not in whorls from the stem. Bark dark grey and smooth on young stems and branches; ultimately on old trunks thick and fissuring into irregular longitudinal plates, roughened externally by small scales.
Branchlets of two kinds: long shoots bearing in spiral order solitary leaves, and short shoots or spurs with leaves in pseudo-verticels. Buds minute ovoid, with a few brown scales, which persist after the opening of the bud, either sheathing the base of the long shoots or surrounding the annual rings of the short shoots. Long shoot with a solitary terminal bud, prolonging the growth of the branchlet in the following year; and with a few lateral buds solitary in the axils of some of the leaves and usually developing into short shoots. Short shoot with a terminal bud only, which, in the following year, either lengthens slightly the spur and adds to it a whorl of leaves with or without flowers, or occasionally develops into a long shoot. Long shoots, slightly furrowed, between the slightly raised decurrent bases of the pulvini, the free ends of which project and bear leaves, and on older branchlets, from which the leaves have fallen, remain persistent as slight prominences.
Leaves, deciduous in the third to the sixth year, variable in length, the shortest on the spurs, articulated at the base, acicular, rigid, sharply pointed, more or less triangular in section, stomatic on all sides; fibro-vascular bundle undivided, hypoderm thick, with two resin canals close to the epidermis on the lower surface.
Flowers, monœcious, terminal, solitary on the older leaf-bearing short shoots. Male flowers, erect, catkin-like, cylindrical, about 2 inches long; anthers numerous, spirally crowded, bi-locular, dehiscing longitudinally; connective prolonged into an ovate denticulate crest; pollen grains globose, without wings, borne to the female flowers by the wind. Female flowers appearing as small purplish cones, about ½ inch in length; composed of numerous spirally arranged, closely appressed, irregularly dentate, sub-orbicular scales, each subtended by a short, included, obovate, denticulate bract; ovules, two on each scale, inverted.
​Ripe cones, solitary, erect, on short stout peduncles, dull-brown, resinous, ellipsoid or cylindrical; rounded, flattened or depressed at the apex. Bracts obsolete or minute and ragged. Scales numerous, closely imbricated, woody, fanshaped; upper expanded part thin, transversely oblong, with denticulate rounded or sloping wings, brown-tomentose in greater part beneath, almost glabrous above; claw thickened, obcuneate, with a raised ridge between the depressions for the seeds on the upper surface, the lower surface being slightly hollowed by the pressure of the seeds of the adjoining scale. Seeds, two on each scale, ¼ to ½ inch long, with resinvesicles on both surfaces, brown, irregularly triangular; surmounted by a membranous brownish wing, broadly triangular or hatchet-shaped, about twice as long as the body of the seed. Cotyledons, nine or ten.
The flowers appear in July or August, the pollen being shed profusely in October. During winter the cones remain small, and only begin to grow in the following April, attaining about half or two-thirds their full size in October of the second year. They are fully ripe in October or November of the third year, i.e. about twenty-six months after the first appearance of the flowers. In their native forests the dissemination of the seed is caused by the autumnal rains, the cones not disarticulating in dry weather. After being soaked with rain, the scales and seeds separate from the axis of the cone (which remains persistent on the branch) and fall to the ground, the seeds with their light wings being blown, when there is a breeze, to a little distance from the parent tree. In England, irregularities occur in the period when the cones disarticulate, dependent, probably, on the absence of heavy rains in the autumn in certain seasons.
Seedling.—Plants raised from seed gathered on Mount Lebanon in 1904, and sown at Monreith in April 1905, averaged 9 inches high in the following September, and showed the following characters:—Tap-root, about 9 inches long, slender, with a few lateral fibres. Caulicle, 2 inches long, slightly furrowed, glabrous. Cotyledons, ten, sessile, 1¾ inch long, curved, tapering to a sharp point, triangular in section, the upper two sides stomatiferous, the lower side green and narrow. Young stem glabrous, bearing in a whorl, just above the cotyledons, the first seven leaves, ⅝ inch long, linear, flattened, sharp-pointed, stomatiferous on both surfaces, deeply grooved below, slightly convex above, sharply serrate in margin. Above the whorl, leaves, gradually increasing in size to 1⅛ inch long, arise in spiral order, similarly serrate and stomatiferous, but almost rounded in section; in addition, the stem gives off at irregular intervals five or six small branchlets.
With regard to the different forms of the cedar, which inhabit four distinct and isolated areas, opinions are much at variance as to their rank. They differ more or less in the length of their leaves, and in the size and shape of the cones, cone scales, and seeds, and in the young stage they differ in habit; but in their native forests they all assume, when old, the flattened form which is sometimes erroneously considered to be peculiar to the Lebanon cedar. This is caused by the inflection of the leading shoot, which is followed by a diminution in the rate of vertical growth, the lateral branches at the same time thickening and growing out horizontally. An ​important difference is the height attained in the wild state, the deodar becoming very tall, the Cyprus cedar remaining short, with the Lebanon and Algerian cedars intermediate in size. They differ in their period of vegetation. At Kew the deodar is the first to put forth young leaves in spring; the Lebanon usually follows a fortnight later; and the Algerian generally comes out last, after an interval of a few days. They may be correctly considered geographical races of the same species; but for arboricultural purposes it is most convenient to rank them as distinct species.
CEDRUS LIBANI, Lebanon Cedar
    Cedrus Libani, Barrelier, Plantæ, Icon. 499 (1714); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2402 (1838); Ravenscroft, Pinet. Brit. iii. 247 (1884); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 415 (1900).
    Cedrus patula, Koch, Dendrol. ii. 268 (1873).
    Pinus Cedrus, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1001 (1753).
    Larix Cedrus, Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. viii. No. 3 (1768).
    Larix patula, Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 314 (1807).
    Abies Cedrus, Poiret in Lamarck, Dict. vi. 510 (1804).
Leading shoot of young trees erect or slightly bent, not pendulous. Branchlets not pendulous, glabrous or with slight short pubescence. Leaves up to 1¼ inch in length, broader than thick. Cones large and broad, ellipsoid, 3 to 4½ inches long, 1¾ to 2½ inches wide; scales 2 inches or more in width, with the claw inflected almost at a right angle.
Varieties
1. Var. argentea, Antoine et Kotschy, Iter. Cilic. No. 417. Trees with glaucous foliage, growing wild in the Cilician Taurus, intermingled with the ordinary form. This variety appears in cultivation, but is rarer than the glaucous form of C. atlantica.
2. Var. decidua, Carrière, Conif. 372 (1867). Leaves deciduous. A tree of this kind, slow in growth and bushy in habit, was obtained by Sénéclauze in 1851. Kent mentions one growing at Westgate near Chichester. Webster reports another, 65 feet high, growing on Lord Derby's property in Kent, and said to be in perfect health, though from its bare appearance in winter it has often been supposed to be dying.
3. Var. tortuosa. On the lawn of a private house at Dulwich, belonging to the Dulwich College estate, there is a remarkable cedar, a photograph of which was sent to Kew in 1903. The stem and all the branches are spirally twisted.
The Lebanon cedar is variable in habit, and numerous supposed varieties are mentioned by Beissner, as nana, a dwarf form; stricta, narrowly pyramidal in habit; pendula, with pendulous branches and branchlets; and viridis, with bright green shining foliage.
​Supposed hybrids between the Lebanon and Atlantic cedars have been recorded, but on insufficient evidence. (A.H.)
Distribution
The best account of the Cedar of Lebanon known to me is the classical paper by Sir Joseph Hooker published in the Natural History Review, vol. ii. p. 11 (1862), and as this gives a careful summary of the facts bearing on the specific identity of the forms of cedar, I summarise it as follows:—In the autumn of 1860 Sir J. Hooker went to Syria in company with Captain Washington, Hydrographer of the Navy, and Captain Mansell, R.N., and arrived at Beyrout on 25th September. The party proceeded to the Lebanon, where Captain Mansell made a detailed survey of the basin where the cedars grow, at the head of the Kedisha valley, 15 miles from the sea in a straight line. At that time the other groves were apparently unknown, though Professor Ehrenberg informed Sir Joseph Hooker that he found many trees in forests of oak on the road from Bsharri to Bshinnate. The Kedisha valley at 6000 feet elevation terminates in broad, flat, shallow basins, and is two or three miles across and as much long. It is three or four miles south of the summit of Lebanon, which is about 10,200 feet in height, the chapel in the cedar grove being about 6200 feet. The cedars grow on a portion of the moraine which borders a stream, and nowhere else; they form one grove about 400 yards in diameter, and appear as a black speck in the great area of the corrie and its moraines, which contain no other arboreous vegetation, nor any shrubs but a few small barberry and rose bushes. The number of the trees is about 400, and they are disposed in nine groups, corresponding with as many hummocks of the range of moraines; they are of various dimensions, from 18 inches to upwards of 40 feet in girth; but the most remarkable and significant fact connected with their size, and consequently with the age of the grove, is that there is no tree of less than 18 inches girth, and that no young trees, seedlings, nor even bushes of a second year's growth were found. Calculating from the rings in a branch of one of the older trees, now in the Kew Museum, the younger trees would average 100 years old, the oldest 2500, both estimates no doubt being widely far from the mark. Sir Joseph goes on to say, that the word cedar as used in the Bible applies to other trees, and he doubts whether the cedar of Lebanon is the one which supplied the timber used in building Solomon's temple. He thinks that the cypress or the tall fragrant juniper of the Lebanon (Juniperus excelsa) would have been not only much easier to procure, but far more prized on every account. Between individuals from the Lebanon and the common Asia Minor form there is said to be no appreciable difference by those who have examined both, but there are two distinct forms or varieties in Asia Minor, one having shorter, stiffer, and more silvery foliage than the other; this is the silver cedar, C. argentea, of our gardens. Northern Syria and Asia Minor form one botanical province, so that the Lebanon groves, ​though so widely disconnected from the Taurus forest, can be regarded in no other light than as an outlying member of the latter. After speaking of the Algerian cedar and the deodar, Sir Joseph says that it is evident that the distinctions between them are so trivial, and so far within the proved limits of variation in coniferous plants, that it may reasonably be assumed that all originally sprang from one. There are no other distinctions whatever between them of bark, wood, leaves, male cones, anthers, or in their mode of germination, growth, or hardiness (but this has not been confirmed during the severe winters of a later date in England). Though the difference in the shape of the scales and seeds of Deodara and Libani are very marked, they vary much, many forms of each overlap, and further transitions between the most dissimilar may be established by the _ intercalation of seeds and scales from C. atlantica. Sir Joseph accounts for the difference in the habit of the three forms in a great measure by the climate of the three localities: the most sparse, weeping, long-leaved cedar is from the most humid region, the Himalaya; whilst atlantica, the form of most rigid habit, corresponds with the climate of the country under the influence of the great Sahara desert. No course remains, then, but to regard all as species, or all as varieties, or Deodara and atlantica as varieties of one species, and Libani as another. The hitherto adopted and only alternative of regarding Libani and atlantica as varieties of one species and Deodara as another species must be given up.
Ravenscroft, in Pinetum Britannicum, gives a very full account of the cedars of Lebanon from various sources, with four good illustrations from photographs taken by F.M. Good of Winchfield, and there are many points in his account worth referring to.
Mr. Ridgway of Fairlawn, who visited them in 1862, says that there is a young tree 50 yards west of the chapel, of exactly the same form and habit as a deodar in his park near Tonbridge. It has the same graceful drooping habit, the same light silvery green, and none of the usual rigid horizontal form of the cedar. He says the remainder of the race of trees vary from 20 to 25 feet in girth; some are as tall and straight as poplars, some not above 20 feet high, and gnarled and stunted. Ravenscroft gives in a table the facts relating to the number of trees found in the accounts of various authors who have written on the Cedars of Lebanon, commencing with Belon in 1550 and ending with Canon Tristram in 1864. Of the older ones there were 28 in Belon's time, which are now reduced to about half that number. There is a gap of some centuries—Ravenscroft says probably more than 1000 years—between the cedars of the second size and the older ones, and again a very long interval of growth between all the young trees, which are now about 4oo. I do not find any reliable information, taken from an actual count of the number of rings in any of the old Cedars of Lebanon, as to what their possible age may be. Ravenscroft has gone very carefully into the question of the age of the Cedars of Lebanon, which, he says, may be from 4000 to 5000 years old; and he further gives a table based on 200 measurements of cedars of all ages in England, which shows that the average growth in height in England is about 1 foot per annum for trees up to sixty years ​old, and from 6 to 9 inches in trees of 100 to 200 years. He gives the average breadth of the annual rings per annum in trees of from twenty to fifty years as from 3½ to 9¼ lines, and in trees from 60 to 200 years as 3¼ lines.
In Gardeners' Chronicle, xii. 204 (1879), S.R. Oliver writes:—"And now about the cedars themselves. The guardian told us that there are exactly 385 trees, large and small, but the smallest must be at least from 50 to 80 years old, and no younger trees are springing up—a fact to which it would be well to draw the attention of the public. At this time of year (28th September) innumerable seeds, which are scattered everywhere beneath the trees from the fallen and expanded cones, are germinating, scattered by the wind; these germinating seeds extend far beyond the actual area covered by the remaining trees; and if it were not that they are trodden under foot, or, what is still more destructive, eaten up by the goats, a few decades of years would soon see a fair sprinkling of healthy young cedars enlarging the borders of the grove. In 100 years the grove would be increased into a wood, and five centuries hence the wood would have become a forest. At present, for want of proper protection against the goats and thoughtless tourists, the present grove is dwindling away, and another generation will exclaim against our supineness in thus allowing a relic of the past to die out prematurely. For a small sum of money a stone wall might be built, enclosing the area of the cedar grove sufficiently well against goats. Future travellers ought to be warned by the guardian to confine their steps to certain paths, so as not to injure the young trees; and stringent precautions should be taken against the disfigurement of the trees now existent, by the cutting of names, tearing down of branches for the cones, etc. It would be easy to build such a wall so as not to be an eyesore or disfigurement, by taking advantage of the sinuosities of the numerous small valleys which permeate the vicinity. I am sure that many travellers would contribute small donations should a subscription list be opened for such a purpose. As the property of the cedars belongs to the Patriarch of the Maronites, by name Butross Massaad, who resides by the Dog river, not far from Beyrout, it would be necessary to obtain his co-operation, and I hope, through the aid of the Consul-General for Syria, to have an interview with him on the subject before I leave the neighbourhood. Most of the single trees of antique growth average 20 to 30 feet in girth at about 6 feet from the ground, but the enormous fathers of the forest are in reality a congeries of two, three, or even more trees which have grown so closely together as to coalesce and actually form a single trunk. Among the younger specimens twin and triplet trees are rather the rule than the exception, and this will explain such a girth as Dr. Wartabet measured round the largest tree on the slope north of the Maronite chapel overlooking the ravine, viz. 48 feet. This tree is by no means one of the oldest, but is at its full growth of maturity, and in vigorous health. The hoar, gaunt, and withered trunks of greatest antiquity are around the usual camping ground at the S.E. corner of the group."
Dr. A.E. Day wrote to me as follows on their actual condition more recently, in a letter dated Beirut, Syria, 9th November 1903:—
Plate 127.
CEDAR ON MOUNT LEBANON
The cedar is also found in the Taurus and Anti-Taurus ranges in Asia Minor, extending from the province of Caria in the west to near the frontier of Armenia in the east. It forms a considerable part of the coniferous forest, which, in a few scattered localities, covers the mountains between 4000 and 7000 feet. It is usually associated with Abies cilicica, Juniperus excelsa, and J. fœtidissima; and is occasionally mixed with Pinus Laricio. In Lycia, dense woods of cedar were observed by Luschan in the Baba Dagh and between Zumuru and the Bulanik Dagh. The tree, however, appears to attain its maximum development in the Cilician Taurus, where there are fine forests of great extent in the Bulgar Dagh, which have been visited by Tchihatcheff, Kotschy, and W. Siehe. The latter states that the climate in which the cedar grows is a severe one, the snow lying several feet deep on the ground for about five months of the year. He describes ​the forest as an open one, the trees standing isolated and attaining about 130 feet in height and ro feet in girth, and none of a larger size were noticed. Haussknecht found the cedar in the Berytdagh in Cataonia; Heldreich collected it in the Davros Dagh in Pisidia; and two or three other localities, where the tree is apparently neither abundant nor remarkable for size, are mentioned by Boissier.
I saw the cedar in the Ak Dagh, on the road between Makri and Cassaba, in 1874, where the trees were growing in open woods at about 5000 to 6000 feet elevation, and were not anything like as large as those in the Lebanon.
Introduction
We have no certain evidence as to the earliest introduction of the cedar into England; but Loudon, p. 2412, considers that Evelyn was most probably the introducer of the tree, as he states in the third edition of the Sylva (p. 125), published in 1679, that he had received seeds from Mount Libanus.
It has been supposed that Dr. Uvedale got the seeds which were planted by him at Enfield between 1665 and 1670 from Evelyn, who, however, does not mention this in the second edition of the Sy/va, published in 1670; and until this tree is dead or cut down we shall not know its age for certain.
The oldest specimen of cedar in the British Museum is in a volume of Herb. Sloane, ix. fol. 90, the title-page of which bears the following inscription:—" Plants gathered about London about the year 1682 for my own (i.e. Sir Hans Sloane's) collection."
Sir Stephen Fox was credited by his descendant, Lord Holland, with having introduced and planted the cedar at Farley, near Salisbury (cf. Loudon, p. 2413), which was cut down in 1813, when it weighed over 13 tons. Quenby Hall, Leicestershire, is also mentioned as having the oldest cedar in England, but this rests on family tradition only, and the tree at Quenby in 1837 was only 47½ feet by 7 feet 9 inches in girth.
In Country Life, May 2, 1903, the late Mr. C.J. Cornish gives an account of a cedar at Childrey Rectory, near Wantage, which, "according to unbroken tradition," was planted by Dr. Edward Pocock, who was chaplain to the Turkey Company at Aleppo in 1629, and afterwards chaplain to the Embassy at Constantinople. He returned home in 1641 and was appointed to the living of Childrey in 1642. In 1903 it was still growing vigorously and increasing rapidly in size, and measured 25 feet in girth at five feet from the ground, and covered an area of about 1600 square yards. Though it has suffered much from the loss of branches broken by the weight of snow about twenty years ago it now presents a very handsome appearance as shown by the photograph which is given on p. 567 of Country Life, No. 330.
Lord Savile informs me that a cedar, which he remembers as being the tallest that he ever saw, grew at Rufford Abbey. This is believed to have been planted ​by Charles II., who used to visit and stay at Rufford, where his rooms are now known as "the King's rooms." Its stump is now surrounded by iron railings and labelled "Cedrus Libani, planted by King Charles II."
Loudon considered that the cedars at Chelsea mentioned by Sir Hans Sloane in 1685 as then existing (Ray's Letters, p. 176), but now dead, and those at Chiswick House, which are still flourishing, were the oldest in England. But I am informed by Mr. Challis, gardener to the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House, that "in the year 1874 a very large cedar was cut down there, whose stem up to about 18 feet from the ground was nearly uniform in size, and then divided into twelve distinct branches, each nearly equal in size to a good-sized tree, some of them extending horizontally 70 feet from the trunk. The circumference of the bole five feet from the ground was 36 feet, a transverse section measured when down 11 feet 9 inches, and the number of concentric rings, after several careful counts, some of the rings being somewhat indistinct, was 236. A section of this stem was sent to the South Kensington Museum."
If this is correct, and it seems to me that the exact statement of so experienced a gardener as Mr. Challis cannot be questioned, the tree must have been introduced in 1638, before Evelyn's time, and was not only the oldest but also the largest cedar on record in England. I have taken great pains to verify this statement by seeing the section mentioned; but though careful search has been made in the Records of the British Museum (Natural History), as well as at the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington, and in the letter books of the Royal Horticultural Society, this wonderful specimen cannot now be traced or discovered.
Cultivation
The seeds of the cedar, whether imported or home grown, should be sown under glass in the spring; for though they will germinate in the open air, their growth is so slow for the first three or four years that much time and loss will be saved by protecting them with a frame. If sown in pots they should be planted out in a frame at a year old, as the roots soon become cramped and pot-bound, and the young plants do not make good roots for some time if they have once been so checked. At two or three years old they may be planted in rich soil about the beginning of May when the buds are starting, and will require some years more in the nursery before finally planting them out.
The Lebanon cedar requires a warm, deep, well-drained soil to bring it to perfection, and does not grow so well in the colder and moister parts of England. When once established it will endure our most severe winters without much injury, though it often suffers from heavy snowstorms, which break the branches. The seedlings vary considerably in habit, in vigour, and in colour, and as they do not bear pruning well when the branches become large, it is best to cut off the lower ones when quite small, so as to encourage an upright growth.
​As most people prefer the spreading forms of cedar for lawns or parks, the Lebanon cedar is probably the best for such places; but when surrounded by other trees it may be drawn up to a great height with few side branches, though I should prefer the Algerian cedar for planting in such situations.
Generally it may be said that the Lebanon cedar is the best for the hotter and drier parts of England, and the deodar for the moister and milder districts. The Algerian cedar seems to be hardier, and according to Sargent this is also the case in the United States; but none of the cedars succeed in New England, though near Philadelphia, Washington, and at Biltmore, North Carolina, there are fine specimens of the Algerian form.
The transplantation of large cedars is rarely desirable, but has been sometimes effected with success, A case is recorded in which a cedar at Southsea 30 feet high, with a spread of 36 feet, was transplanted at a cost of about £100.
Mr. J.W. Odell, gardener at the Grove, Stanmore, in a communication to the Royal Horticultural Society on 14th February 1899, states that during a recent gale a large branch was broken off a cedar there, which showed that a great mass of adventitious roots had started from the seat of a previous injury and grown downwards towards the base of the tree, between the splintered portions of the wood. I observed a precisely similar occurrence in a cedar which was partly blown down at Stoke Hall, Notts, in October 1903. The roots were bright reddish-brown in colour, and the thicker ones, an inch in diameter, were covered with rough pustules. Some of these were sent to the Museum at Kew.
Remarkable Trees
Among the existing trees in England it is difficult to say which is the finest. If height and girth combined are taken there is none to equal the splendid tree at Pains Hill, near Cobham, now the property of C. Combe, Esq., of Cobham Park. An account of this place, published in Country Life for March 19, 1904, states that these cedars were probably planted between 1750 and 1760 by the Hon. Charles Hamilton. In 1781 Sir Joseph Banks visited Pains Hill with the younger Linnzus, who said that he saw there a greater variety of fir trees than he had seen anywhere else. Curiously enough, Loudon, though he often mentions Pains Hill, gives no measurements, and neither Strutt, Lambert, nor Lawson alludes to the cedars there; but when I saw them in 1904 I measured the largest (Plate 128) to be from 115 to 120 feet high by 26 feet 5 inches in girth. It grows on sandy soil near the lake and divides into several tall, straight stems, which form a spreading crown, and seems to be in perfect health.
Plate 128.
LEBANON CEDAR AT PAINSHILL
Plate 129.
LEBANON CEDAR AT GOODWOOD
Plate 130.
LEBANON CEDAR AT STRATHFIELDSAYE
There are some splendid cedars at Wilton of which Lambert writes as follows:—"I am indebted to the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert (author of the celebrated work on Amaryllidaceæ) for the following interesting particulars respecting the cedars at Highclere, the seat of the Earl of Carnarvon: 'The two oldest cedars at Highclere were raised in 1739 from a cone brought from Lebanon by Dr. Pococke in 1738. They were stunted plants for some time, and removed to their present situation in 1767. The largest of the two measured, in 1829, 9 feet in circumference, having grown only an inch in the last two years, the chalk being unfavourable to its growth. The largest cedar at Highclere, though much younger, measured in 1830, at three feet from the ground, 10 feet 1 inch in circumference; it was reared from a cone, which came from the Wilton cedars in 1772, and was about 48 years old before it bore. It was known to the late Earl of Carnarvon that the cedars at Wilton were kept by his grandmother, the Countess of Pembroke, in pots at her window, till growing too large, they were planted upon the lawn, between the house and the water, a situation very favourable to their growth. Supposing them to have been 48 years old, when the cone was gathered from them in 1772, they must have been raised as early as 1724. It is most probable they were between 1710 and 1720; for the Countess of Pembroke who cultivated them died before her husband, who married again after her death, and died in 1733. The oldest cedars at Highclere are, therefore, now (in 1831) 92 years old; those at Wilton at least 106, probably between 110 and 120. Dr. Pococke found the circumference of the largest cedar with a round or single stem to be 20 feet; but he does not state how near the ground he measured it.'" I saw these trees in 1903 and measured them carefully; the best was then about 108 feet high and 21 in girth, with a spread of 109 feet. This tree has lost a large limb, the hollow caused by which has been carefully filled with cement.
At Strathfieldsaye there are also some splendid cedars, a group of which on strongish clay soil have the same upright, small-branched character as the Windsor trees. The best of these is 110 feet high by 11 feet 9 inches in girth, with a clean ​bole of about 4o feet (Plate 130). When mentioned by Loudon it was considered the tallest in England, being then 108 feet high by 9 feet in girth, At Combe Bank, near Sevenoaks, there is a magnificent cedar, which Henry in 1904 measured about 105 feet high with a girth of 20 feet. There are no really large cedars at Syon, Kew, or Woburn. There is a magnificent tree at Blenheim, 28 feet in girth, but of no great height, and having the spreading habit which we usually see in this tree in England (Plate 132).
Probably the tallest cedar in England is one in the pleasure grounds of Petworth Park, which I measured carefully in 1905, and could not make it less than about 125 feet high by 144 feet in girth. It is remarkable for having a trunk clear of branches for no less than 56 feet, where a small limb comes off, but, with this exception, it is clean up to about 80 feet. Probably this habit is due to its growing in a sheltered position, more or less shut in by other trees, on a deep bed of sandy loam. Owing to its position this tree is very difficult to photograph (Plate 131).
The next finest tree of this type which I have seen is one in the Belvedere Plantation at Windsor. This, according to Menzies, who says that the ground is marked in a map of 1750 as open, cannot be more than 150 years old; and it is at least 115 feet high with a girth of 16 feet. It is without any large branch until it reaches a height of 60 feet or more, and carries nearly the same girth to this elevation; so that a plank 60 feet long and 3 or 4 feet wide at the top end could probably be cut from it. Menzies figures this tree and gives the dimensions in 1864 as only 75 feet by 12 feet 10 inches, which was probably less than its actual size at that time. There are several other fine trees in the same drive, but none equal to this; and a young one close by, which was planted by Mr. Simmonds, Deputy Surveyor of Windsor Forest, about thirty-five years ago, is now about 4o feet high, and has the same straight-growing upright habit which cedars seem to develop best on deep sandy soil.
In Hertfordshire there are many fine cedars, of which the most notable are growing on a lawn at Bayfordbury. Mr. Clinton Baker tells me that they were raised from seeds of the Enfield Cedar, and planted in 1765. They have been measured at various intervals by his grandfather, father, and himself, as follows:—
Plate 131.
LEBANON CEDAR AT PETWORTH
Plate 132.
LEBANON CEDAR AT BLENHEIM
Plate 133.
LEBANON CEDAR AT STRATTON STRAWLESS
Plate 134.
LEBANON CEDAR ON BIRCHANGER
At Chorleywood Cedars, near Rickmansworth, there are seven very fine cedars, standing on high ground, which form a landmark in the country, and are said to measure about 23 feet in girth. Another at the same place was recently struck by lightning, and cut down.
At Beechwood, near Dunstable, the seat of Sir Edgar Sebright, Bt., there are some very fine old cedars, of which the largest, as I am informed by Miss F. Woolward, measures 100 feet by 28 feet 4 inches, with a spread of branches 46 feet across. Another, 90 feet by 23 feet, has branches from 50 to 60 feet long.
At Chiswick House there are a number of very fine cedars still surviving, though not so many as when the late Mr. Barron, Superintendent of the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens, measured them in 1882. The two largest trees at that time were 16 feet and 18 feet in girth, and when I saw them in 1904 the two largest were 16 feet 5 inches and 18 feet 5 inches. These are supposed to have been planted about 1720, but are nothing like so fine as many trees at a greater distance from London.
One of the most remarkable cedars in England, on account of its habit, stands in what was probably a dense grove of tall silver firs near the site of the old house at Stratton Strawless, the home of Robert Marsham, who planted it when 1} feet high, in 1747. When described by Grigor in 1841 its stem was 44 feet high, free from branches, and 12 feet 2 inches in girth at 6 feet. His plate shows that it has changed but little now. When Mr. Birkbeck showed it to me in April 1907 it was about 80 feet high and 163 feet in girth, and though some branches in the crown had been broken off, it looks remarkably vigorous (Plate 133).
A fine tree of the same type, but not equal to the last mentioned, is in a sheltered part of the grounds at Gosfield Hall, Essex, the property of Mrs. Lowe. It is 80 to go feet high, by 14½ feet in girth, with a clean stem up to about 60 feet, and a flat, spreading crown of branches at the top.
A cedar which is growing at Birchanger Place, near Bishop-Stortford, for a photograph of which I am indebted to the owner, T. Harrison, Esq. (Plate 134), is strikingly different in habit, and of its type is one of the most beautiful and perfectly shaped in England. It is about 60 feet high and 17 feet in girth, the branches covering an area at least 100 yards in circumference. Another tree of the same type, but not so symmetrical, grows at Billing Hall, the seat of Valentine Cary Elwes, Esq., near Northampton, and measures about 60 feet by 19 feet 5 inches. The branches, which spread over an area about 100 paces round, are supported by a great number of wooden props.
In the west of England this tree does not attain the same size and beauty as in the drier counties, the largest I have seen in Devonshire being at Bicton, which is about 21½ feet in girth, At Castlehill, in the same county, there is a tree about 80 feet by 14 feet 9 inches; and at Sherborne Castle, in Dorsetshire, there are a ​number of fine trees, the largest of which I found to be about 105 feet by 16½ feet, dividing at about 15 feet up into five or six tall, straight stems.
In Wales I have seen none remarkable for size except a tree at Maesleugh Castle which is about 100 feet by 16½ feet, with a clean stem about 20 feet high.
In Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, even where the soil is good, the cedar does not attain the same dimensions as in the south of England, but it ripens seed at least as far north as Syston Park, where there are some trees near the house in an exposed position at an elevation of about 500 feet above sea-level, which show remarkable variation in colour. When J saw them on 16th June one was only just opening its buds, and looked quite black in comparison with others whose new leaves were well out and of a very glaucous colour. This colour is reproduced by their seeds, for two young trees raised from them, which were kindly given me by Sir John Thorold, are so glaucous that every one who has seen them in my nursery has mistaken them for C. atlantica glauca, while two seedlings of C. atlantica from Cooper's Hill are not distinguishable from C. Libani.
In Cumberland there are two splendid cedars at Eden Hall, the seat of Sir R. Musgrave, Bart., which, according to a paper by Mr. Clark of Carlisle, were supposed to be 270 years old, and one of them measured 86 feet by 22½ feet, the other 86 feet by 21 feet, with a spread of 101 feet in diameter. At Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, there is a tree in the wood near the Duchess bridge, measuring 69 feet by 7 feet 3 inches.
The finest avenue of cedars I know in England is that at Dropmore, of which I give an illustration taken from a photograph made in 1903 (Plate 135). This avenue is said to be composed of Lebanon cedars planted probably about 1844, and if really so young as this, is a very remarkable instance of the rapid growth of the cedar in this country. There is, however, some doubt as to whether they are Cedars of Lebanon or Algerian cedars, and though I have made inquiries from Mr. Fortescue I cannot ascertain with certainty their origin.
The best account I know of the Cedar of Lebanon in Scotland is given in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, vi. 429, in 1826, by Mr. J. Smith, then gardener to the Earl of Hopetoun, and as this shows the rate of growth of the cedar to be, even in that latitude, greater than that of any other tree, I quote it as follows:—
Plate 135.
CEDAR AVENUE AT DROPMORE
comparing the different measures how much the cedars have exceeded all the other trees:—
I visited Hopetoun, the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow, in April 1904, and found that two of these cedars still survive in good condition, the larger being about 80 feet high and 23 feet 8 inches in girth, the other about 88 feet by 13 feet.
There is a fine cedar at Biel, East Lothian, the seat of Mrs. N. Hamilton Ogilvy, which is said to have been planted in 1707 by Lord Belhaven, to commemorate the Union of England and Scotland. According to Mr. S. Ross it was, in 1883, 75 feet high by 17½ feet in girth; but I am informed by Mr. T. Muir that it is now 85 feet high by 19 feet 9 inches at 1½ feet from the ground, with a spread of 101 feet.
At Moncreiffe House near Perth, the seat of Sir R. Moncreiffe, there is a well-shaped tree, which Hunter mentioned as bearing many cones and measuring 66 feet by 11 feet. In 1907, when I saw it, it was about 80 feet by 144 feet at 3 feet from the ground. At Dupplin Castle, the seat of the Earl of Kinnoull, there are two cedars of which the best shaped measures 86 feet by 16 feet 10 inches, and the other is 18 feet 8 inches in girth at 3 feet. At Murthly there are two good trees, which, though probably not much over seventy years old, measure 74 feet by 9 feet 3 inches and 70 feet by 10 feet 6 inches respectively.
The best I have heard of in the west of Scotland are one at Mount Stuart in Bute, which Mr. Renwick tells me is 64 feet by 8 feet 3 inches, and another at Erskine House, near Renfrew, which is 62 feet by 1o feet at 1½ feet from the ground.
In the N.E. of Scotland it also grows well; there are two very fine trees at Beaufort Castle. According to the measurements given me by Mr. G. Brown the largest of these is 73 feet by 22 feet 8 inches at 3 feet from the ground, dividing at five feet into four large stems, which measure from 9 to 11 feet in girth, The other is the same height and 16 feet in girth, At Brahan Castle there are also some fine cedars.
​In Ireland the Lebanon cedar has been rarely planted in comparison with its frequency in England; and Henry has not seen any large trees except one at Carton, which in 1903 was 93 feet by 14 feet 9 inches, and is said to have been the first planted in Ireland; and six fine trees at Anneville near Dundrum, Co. Dublin, the largest of which was 14½ feet in girth in 1904.
There is an excellent article on cedars by Dr. Masters in the Gardeners' Chronicle for Oct. 17, 1903, giving an illustration of the historic tree in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, about which many incorrect statements have been published. Carriére gives 1736 as the date at which it was planted, from seed brought from England by Bernard de Jussieu in 1735. From this seed was also derived the cedar at Montigny (Seine et Oise), and the one at Beaulieu, near Geneva. Carriére states that the cedars at Geneva produce seeds so freely that but for the scythe of the mower it would form forests on the shores of the Lake. In a letter from M. Maurice de Vilmorin I learn that the Montigny cedar is now probably the best in France. About 1855 it was 7 metres in girth at two metres from the ground, and it is now 7.90 metres at the same height. There is another tree at Vrigny, the residence of M. Duhamel de Monceau, near Pithiviers, Loiret. His notes of 1874 state that this tree, planted in 1744, had suffered much from the frost of 1870–71, when two-thirds of its branches were frozen. It measured about 8 metres in girth.
I saw a very fine cedar in the grounds of M. Philippe de Vilmorin at Verrières, near Paris, in May 1905, which measured 87 feet by 13 feet; and also visited the tree in the grounds of Madame Chauvet at Beaulieu, near Geneva, which is now considered to be the finest on the Continent, though not equal to several English trees. It is a well-shaped spreading tree about 100 feet high, though difficult to measure exactly, and 16 feet in girth, with a spread of 102 feet.
Timber
What is called cedar in commerce is usually the wood of Cedrela odorata, a tree found in the West Indies and Central America. The wood of the so-called pencil cedar, Juniperus virginiana, is also often known as cedar, and this can be distinguished at once by its colour and smell from the true cedar. A case was recently tried in London with regard to the quality of the cedar used in panelling a room at Packington Hall, in which it was stated in evidence by a so-called expert that there were three kinds of cedar known in the trade, "English grown, pencil cedar, and Californian cedar," "the latter used for inferior work." This is a not unusual instance of the gross ignorance which prevails in England among users of timbers as to their names and native countries, and this ignorance has led to many costly lawsuits. The Lebanon cedar grows so fast in England under favourable circumstances that the wood is of a much softer character than it is in Syria, but it may be used for ​many purposes of internal decoration; and the best instance of such use that I know is at Broom House, Fulham, the residence of Miss Sulivan. This lady, having a cedar blown down on her lawn, had it cut into boards, of which there were sufficient to floor and panel the whole of a good-sized drawing-room. When the wood is carefully selected, its pale pink colour and handsome figure make it very ornamental. Its value in commerce is, however, low, because neither the supply nor the demand is regular; and the cost of removing and sawing up large cedar trees is so great, that I was offered a tree containing over 300 cubic feet for nothing if I could get it away; and the Earl of Powis told me that some large trees which were blown down at Walcot were unsaleable, and were eventually used as a cheap material for the kennels of the United Foxhounds. (H.J.E.)
CEDRUS BREVIFOLIA, Cyprus Cedar
    Cedrus brevifolia.
    Cedrus Libani, Barrelier, var. brevifolia, Hooker, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), xvii. 517 (1879); Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 300, fig. 75 (1891).
Resembling C. Libani in characters of leading shoot and branchlets, but with very short leaves, not exceeding ½ inch in length. Cones smaller than those of C. atlantica, which they resemble in other respects.
The cedar was discovered in the mountains of Cyprus in 1879 by Sir Samuel Baker, whose specimens were described in the same year as Cedrus Libani, var. brevifolia, by Sir J.D. Hooker, who considered this form to agree more closely with the Algerian than the other cedars, resembling it in the small size of the cones and in the general characters of the foliage.
The best account of this cedar forest is by Sir Robert Biddulph, who wrote as follows in 1884 to the Director of Kew:—
"The cedar forest occupies a ridge on the principal watershed of the southern range, and about 15 miles west of Mount Troodos. The length of the forest is about 3 miles, its breadth very much less. A few outlying cedar trees were visible on neighbouring hills, but on the ridge they were quite thick, and probably many thousands in number. I took the height above the sea by an aneroid barometer, and found it to be 4300 feet. The trees are very handsome and in good condition, but comparatively young. The smallest seemed to be from ten to fifteen years old; the largest, I am told by the principal forest officer, are probably not over sixty or seventy years. The worst feature is that there were no seedlings or young trees under ten years; and indeed this is the same with regard to the pine forests. It would seem as if the great influx of goats has been comparatively recent. I. made a tour through the heart of the forest last August. I started from a point on the west coast, and from thence ascended to the main watershed, and kept along the top till I reached Mount Troodos, taking three days to do it. The country through which we passed on the first day was perfectly uninhabited, and a mass of hills and forest, chiefly Pinus hale​pensis and the Ilex. The trees were in very great number, but there was a scarcity of young trees, and most of the old ones had been tapped for resin. On the second day we passed through the cedar forest, and the same sort of country as before, the Pinus Laricio beginning at an altitude of 4000 feet. We got as far as the monastery of Kykou that day, and the next day I continued along the watershed to the camp at Troodos. Our road as far as Kykou was a mere track on the side of the hill, in some parts rather dangerous, and we had to lead our ponies on foot, in many parts very steep. The difficulty on the road is the want of water at that elevation. We halted the first night at a beautiful spring, but we had to carry with us food for man and beast for the whole party, muleteers, etc. The scenery was wild and romantic. This spot is the centre of the moufflon ground; three of them were at the spring when we approached it. It gave me a clearer idea of the forests of Cyprus than I ever had before."
Madon, who wrote for the Government in 1881 a report on the forests of Cyprus, states that none of the trees were then apparently over eighty years old; but that all were in a vigorous state of vegetation, with numerous. young trees of every age covering the soil. In addition to the main forest, three outlying clumps were seen by Madon,—one on the other side of the Ogostina valley, a group of forty-four very young trees at the Kykou monastery, and a third group much lower down. He considered that the cedars formerly covered the whole of the mountain heights from Machera to Livrami, being limited below by the zone of the olive tree. The timber can be recognised in the houses at Campo and in the carvings of the Kykou monastery, showing that the tree was formerly felled for building purposes. Madon noticed what has been confirmed by other observers, that the foliage varied in tint, most of the trees being glaucous.
Hartmann, who has recently visited Cyprus, reports that the trees are remarkable for their broad, umbrella-like crowns, and average about 40 feet in height, 6 feet in girth, and 100 years in age. (A.H.)
I am informed by Mr. C.D. Cobham, Acting Chief-Secretary to Government, in a recent letter, that the Cyprian cedars now occupy an area of about 500 acres in the centre of the Papho Forest, of which the summit, Tripylos, is 4640 feet above the sea, The cedars are mixed with pines and Ilex. There are also a few young trees at Kykou Monastery, a few in the vineyards at Chakistra, and one good specimen tree at Pedoullas. This last was purchased by the Government to preserve it from being cut for building material. There are a number of seedlings in the cedar forest, but these do not seem to have been affected by the exclusion of goats, as animals avoid the cedar when they. can find other food. The largest tree in the forest is in Argakis Irkas Teratsa, near the Kykou goatfold. It stands about 60 feet high, and measures 11 feet 6 inches in girth at five feet from the ground. A photograph of this tree is so precisely like a Lebanon cedar standing on my own lawn, which I see as I write, that I need not reproduce it. I may add that some cones sent from Cyprus in February 1905 were smaller than the cones from Syria ​or those grown in England. Though at the time I did not think they were mature, yet the seeds contained in them have germinated and produced young plants, which in July were just putting forth their second whorl of leaves, but by the following May had increased very little in size, being much smaller than those of the same age from Swiss and English seed.
Plants were raised at Kew from seed received in 1881; and two, now growing in the cedar collection at Kew, have attained only 6 feet in height, and are remarkable for their singularly short leaves and stunted bushy appearance. A number of them were killed by the winter, having been planted out when too young, which seems to show that this variety is more tender than the Lebanon tree. (H.J.E.)
CEDRUS ATLANTICA, Atlas or Algerian Cedar
    Cedrus atlantica, Manetti, Cat. Plant. Hort. prope Modiciam, Suppl. Secundum, 9 (1845); Ravenscroft, Pinet. Brit. iii, 217 (1884); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 409 (1900); Masters, Gard. Chron. x. 425, f. 53 (1891).
    Cedrus africana, Knight, Syn. Conif. 42 (1850).
    Cedrus Libani, Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 564 (1897).
    Pinus atlantica, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 137 (1847).
    Pinus Cedrus, Linnæeus, var. atlantica, Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 108 (1864).
    Abies atlantica, Lindley and Gordon, Journ. Hort. Soc. v. 214 (1850).
Young trees stiffer in habit than the Lebanon cedar, and with an erect leader. Branchlets not pendulous, covered with short dense pubescence. Leaves up to an inch (occasionally in cultivated specimens 1¼ inch) long, usually as thick as or thicker than broad. Cones shorter and more cylindrical than in C. Libani; scales 1½ inches in width, claw inflected.
Varieties
Var. glauca.—In the cedar forests of Algeria a certain proportion of the trees have glaucous foliage, the leaves being marked above with conspicuous white stomatic bands; but there is no other difference, and no foundation exists for the opinion, first mooted by Jamin, that the glaucous variety constitutes a distinct species. The glaucous tint is an essentially unstable character, trees occurring in the wild state in which glaucous leaves appear only on some of the branches. This variety often arises in cultivation.
Beissner mentions several varieties, which have been obtained in cultivation, as pyramidalis, columnaris, and fastigiata, characterised by peculiarities of habit; and a variegated form in which the foliage of the young shoots is yellowish, but so far ​as we have seen these are not distinguishable as they get older. At Glasnevin there is a remarkable tree about forty years old, of which the stem is erect for about 25 feet, and beyond this bends over almost horizontally, extending laterally outwards for almost 12 feet; and Elwes saw one of very slender and pendulous habit at Angers in France.
Distribution
This cedar occurs in Algeria and Morocco. In the latter country its distribution is still scarcely known, though it was in Morocco that the Atlas cedar was first discovered. Philip Barker Webb visited Tangiers and Tetuan in the spring of 1827, and from a native received branches of cedar which had been collected in the impenetrable mountains of the province of El Rif, where there were said to be vast forests. Webb's specimens are preserved in the museum at Florence, where I saw them in December 1906. His discovery was published in an article by De Candolle in 1837. Dr. Trabut states that the tree occurs in the mountains behind Tetuan; and it is supposed to exist to the south-east of Fez, where the traveller Rohlfs states that he saw larch growing.
In Algeria the cedar forms a considerable number of isolated forests, none of them of great extent, at altitudes between 4000 and 6900 feet. The tree appears to be indifferent to soil, as it grows both on limestone and on sandstone formations. No meteorological observations have been regularly taken in the cedar forests; but in general, where the tree flourishes, snow lies for several months during winter, the temperature descending to 5° Fahr., and frost prevailing until May. In summer the weather is dry with moderate temperatures.
In the following detailed account I have supplemented my own observations by consulting both the special pamphlet concerning the cedar, published by order of Governor-General Cambon, and M. Lefebvre's excellent book on the forests of Algeria.
The chief forests are those in the vicinity of Ouarsenis, Téniet-el-Hâad, and Blida, and in the Djurdjura range in the province of Algiers; and those on Mt. Babor, in the Mdadid mountains south of Sétif, and in the Aurès and Belezma mountains near Batna.
The forest of Ouarsenis, the most westerly in Algeria, lies in the mountains south of Orléansville. Here the cedar, mostly in mixture with Quercus Ilex, only covers an area of 250 acres. The forest near Blida, which is often visited by tourists, as it lies near the railway not far from Algiers, is 1700 acres in extent, and consists of cedars either growing pure or in mixture with the evergreen oak; and it is, generally speaking, in a poor condition. In the Djurdjura range, extending in an interrupted band on both slopes for nearly 4o miles, are the remains of an ancient forest, most of the trees either growing singly or in small groups on rocks and precipices, ​between 4900 and 6500 feet; but on the Haizer peak M. Britsch saw a few trees on the north slope as high as 7100 feet.
The forest on Mt. Babor is of no great extent, but is an interesting one, consisting of a mixture of cedar, Quercus Mirbeckii, and Abies numidica, and will be described in our account of the last-named species. The brigadier in charge of this forest informed me that he had measured there a cedar 62 feet in girth. In the mountains of Maadid there are four distinct forests, generally speaking in bad condition, and yielding scarcely any timber, though in one of them, called Ouled Khellouf, there are said to be some very large trees.
The forests which are the most important from every point of view are those in the west near Téniet-el-Hâad, and those in the east in the vicinity of Batna, visited by me last January.
The cedar occurs around Batna, both on the Aurès range and its spur Belezma. The forest of Sgag is 23 miles distant from Batna and covers 1200 acres. Between Batna and Biskra, about 20 miles north of the latter place, the forest of Djebel Lazereg is 1350 acres in area, and is noted for producing a peculiar kind of cedar timber, pink in colour and with a juniper-like odour. A very fine forest of considerable extent, 28,000 acres, lies around Mt. Chélia, the highest point in Algeria, 7500 feet altitude, 43 miles to the south-east of Batna; but it was practically inaccessible in January. In one part of it, the forest of Beni-Oudjana, 44,666 trees have been marked for felling, estimated to contain 3,615,000 cubic feet of timber, which will be offered for sale by the Government in the course of the present year.
I visited the forest of Belezma, which is only 12 miles to the north-west of Batna. The whole wooded area here under government control is 140,000 acres in extent; but of this the cedar occupies only 22,000 acres, ascending the mountain to its summit, 6900 feet, and descending on northern slopes to 3600 feet, and on southern slopes to 4300 feet. The forest was badly treated in former years, whole tracts of the finest trees having been clean cut away and the timber used in building the town of Batna. The drought which prevailed from 1875 to 1881 caused serious damage to the remaining trees, and many died, most of which, except those that have been lately felled, are still standing, Felling is done regularly every year, only dead trees being removed. The sapwood of these has rotted away, but the heartwood remains quite sound and unaltered. This timber is mainly used for railway sleepers, though some has been utilised in house-building and for making wood pavement and furniture. None of it appears ever to have been exported; and it is a great pity to see such excellent wood utilised only for rough purposes. The price obtained for it is as it stands very low, 1d. to 2d. per cubic foot; yet it is fairly accessible, as the haulage to Batna is very cheap, but the rate by railway from there to Philippeville, the nearest seaport, is 15s. per ton.
It snowed very heavily during my stay at the forester's house near the top of the mountain; but so far as I could see, the cedar only grows here in a dense condition in the young stage, there being in the ravines fine stands of cedars 30 feet high, which are slightly mixed, like the rest of the forest, with Quercus Ilex, Juniperus thurifera, and Juniperus phœnicea, These young trees are narrowly ​pyramidal in form, with erect stiff leaders; but in slightly older trees the leader begins to incline over on one side, and the branches to thicken and elongate, and this process being continued, eventually the tree assumes when old the habit of Lebanon cedars, as we see them in English parks. In other parts of the forest the older trees are more or less scattered with the same admixture of junipers and evergreen oak, the undergrowth being Phillyrea and broom. The cedar appeared to be slow in growth, the annual shoots of young vigorous trees not exceeding three or four inches in length. From observations made in one section of this forest the tree shows at different ages the following dimensions:—
| Age. | Diameter. | Diameter. | Height of Market- able Timber. | Total Height. |
| | Feet. | Inches. | Feet. | Feet. |
| 125 years | 2 | 7½ | 46 | 98 |
| 160 years„ | 2 | 11½ | 52½ | 105 |
| 200 years„ | 3 | 3 | 59 | 115 |
| 255 years„ | 4 | 3 | 59 | 125 |
| 305 years„ | 4 | 11 | 59 | 125 |
An official document, which I saw at Batna, gave the total number of sound trees over 40 inches in girth as 265,500, estimated to contain between ten and eleven million cubic feet of timber, the total timber in the forest, young and old trees, cubing 16,000,000 feet. In addition, there is still standing 900,000 cubic feet of dead timber. In a few spots, as in the Chellala-Bordjen section, there are rather dense stands of old trees, which run to 7000 cubic feet per acre; but there are large tracts in parts of the forest which have scarcely 150 cubic feet to the acre.
The tree produces seed abundantly every two or three years; and regeneration is good in favourable situations, as in northerly ravines. The cones disarticulate in November, after the autumnal rains, but if the weather is exceptionally dry, do not open. Seedlings appear under dense cover, but in such situations grow slowly, and do much better in the partially open places between large trees. The widespreading branches which the tree ultimately produces show, I think, that in old age it requires a great deal of light, and tends to grow in a more or less isolated condition; but until middle age the trees bear crowding without injury. In the bare parts of the mountain, where the trees were cut away many years ago, artificial planting has been tried on a small scale, and has succeeded on northern slopes when two-year-old seedlings have been planted in autumn. Plants put out in the spring on the southern slopes have died of drought, which is the great enemy to both artificial and natural regeneration.
Plate 136.
ALGERIAN CEDARS AT TÉNIET EL HÂAD
The wood of the cedar, though without resin-canals, contains a quantity of resin, which gives it a peculiar, penetrating, and distinctive odour. At Batna, libanol, a kind of resin, is obtained by distillation of the sawdust of old trees. This product is very valuable in the treatment of inflammation of the mucous membranes, and is said to be curative in influenza. Cedar wood contains a large amount of white sapwood, 25 to 50 annual rings, with a brown or brownish-yellow heartwood. The heartwood is homogeneous and fine in the grain, and takes an admirable polish. It lasts indefinitely, trees which were cut down fifty years ago in the forest at Batna remaining still on the ground quite sound, and when not exposed to the air is imperishable. Pieces of cedar wood have been found in tombs which are supposed to belong to the Punic period, and portions of ancient mosques built of cedar are in perfect condition. Placed in water, the heartwood becomes very hard; and vats made of it, which have been buried in sand for thirty years, are not only well preserved, but cannot be cut by an axe. The wood of dead trees can be used at once, but that of living trees requires to be seasoned carefully for six or twelve months. Though the timber is used in building, it is rather heavy for that purpose, and has no great elasticity or resistance to flexion under a heavy weight. It is, however, well suited for the finest kinds of cabinet-making.(A.H.)
Cultivation
The seed ripens in most seasons in England at least, as well as that of the Lebanon cedar, and will sometimes come up naturally near the parent trees, as at Cooper's Hill near Windsor, from whence I transplanted two self-sown seedlings to my own garden.
​When staying at Heythrop Park, Oxfordshire, in March 1901, I went out on a morning when the frost was so hard that the hounds could not hunt till noon, and found seeds which had germinated on the ground beneath a glaucous cedar. The radicles were protruding from the seeds, in some cones which had not fallen; I took them home and planted them, and have now several healthy young trees about a foot high.
I also sowed a quantity of imported seed in the open field, where they germinated well, but the plants were all destroyed by mice, frost, and drought in the first season, though seedlings raised in the nursery stood the winter without protection. As the seed can be procured in quantity at a cheap rate from Messrs. Vilmorin of Paris, I should recommend its being sown in a frame and protected for two or three years, after which it will require two to three years more in the nursery before planting out. .
The tree seems to like lime in the soil, and will, in my opinion, prove a valuable timber tree if planted in open woods, in warm, dry soils, sufficiently close together to prevent its branches from developing too much, and possibly if mixed with beech it might thrive better than alone.
As regards the relative rate of growth of the Atlas and Lebanon cedars we have the evidence of M. André Leroy, the well-known nurseryman of Angers, who, in the Belgique Horticole, 1867, p. 59, gives the following measurements:—
| Lebanon Cedar | Lebanon Cedar | Lebanon Cedar | Atlas Cedar | Atlas Cedar | Atlas Cedar |
| Age | Height. | Height. | Age | Height. | Height. |
| | Metres. | Centimetres. | | Metres. | Centimetres. |
| 1 year | 0 | 6-8 | 1 year | 0 | 10-15 |
| 2 years | 0 | 12-15 | 2 years | 0 | 20-30 |
| 3 years„ | 0 | 18-25 | 3 years„ | 0 | 40-50 |
| 4 years„ | 0 | 36 | 4 years„ | 1 | 0 |
| 5 years„ | 0 | 50 | 5 years„ | 1 | 75 |
| 6 years„ | 0 | 75 | 6 years„ | 2 | 50 |
| 7 years„ | 1 | 0 | 7 years„ | 3 and upwards | 3 and upwards |
After seven years of age, he states that the annual growth was often more than one metre, and mentions a tree only twelve years old, from seed, which was one metre in circumference (I presume at the ground). He also says that it is easier to transplant, and endures exposure and bad soil better than the Lebanon cedar, and believes that it will prove a valuable tree for planting on barren wastes where nothing else will thrive.
Plate 137.
ALGERIAN CEDAR AT ASHAMPSTEAD
Many of the grafted trees of the glaucous variety, which are usually sold by nurserymen, are one-sided and unsightly objects, for a good many years after planting at any rate; and though it is claimed by some that grafting, if properly done, does not permanently disfigure the tree, yet I would always prefer seedlings. Even if not quite so glaucous in colour as the best of the others, a certain number of this tint will generally appear among them.
The date at which the Algerian cedar was first introduced to this country is somewhat uncertain; but it must have been subsequent to 1844, and if any older ones exist they cannot be recognised with certainty. Several trees appearing older than this have been supposed to be African, on account of their habit and cones, but there is nothing on record to prove it.
According to Ravenscroft, the oldest of which we have an exact record were raised at Eastnor Castle in 1845, from cones gathered by Lord Somers himself at Téniet-el-H4ad. In December 1860 the tallest of these was 18½ feet; in December 1866, 31 feet. When I measured it in 1906, it was 77 feet by 8 feet 1 inch.
Remarkable Trees
The tallest tree that I have measured in England is at Linton Park, Kent, and is a glaucous tree, which, from its shape, seems to be grafted, though there is no evidence of this. It was 80 feet high in 1902.
The largest recorded at the Conifer Conference in 1891 was at Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire,! the seat of the Marquess of Normanby. It was then 66 feet by 5 feet 10 inches. Mr. Corbett informs me that it is now 72 feet by 8 feet 4 inches.
On Ashampstead Common, Berks, there is a handsome and well-grown tree which has grown up in a semi-wild condition among other trees, and which was 63 feet by 64 feet when I last saw it in 1907 (Plate 137).
At Ashridge there are several fine glaucous trees, raised from seeds, which were brought. by Earl Brownlow, in 1862, from Téniet-el-Hâad; the best of them already measures 58 feet by 6 feet. At Merton Hall, Norfolk, there is a very well-shaped tree measuring 60 feet by 6 feet.
At Bicton there is a fine tree measuring 68 feet by 7 feet 6 inches. At Coldrinick, in Cornwall, there is a well-shaped tree which, in 1905, was 64 feet by 5½ feet. At Heanton Satchville, North Devon, I saw a healthy young tree ina shrubbery, which was clear of branches to 20 feet up, and though 48 feet high, was only 2 feet 7 inches in girth, showing the ability of this cedar to thrive without much space, even in a climate so much damper and cooler than that of Algeria.
At Tortworth there is a cedar about 50 feet high with very short leaves, and remarkably fastigiate habit, which seems to belong to the variety named fastigiata.
In Scotland I have not seen any so large as in England; but the tree grows ​well at Murthly and other places. At Smeaton-Hepburn, a tree, planted in 1847, was, in 1902, 6½ feet high and 63 feet in girth. At Fordell, in Fifeshire, the property of Lord Buckinghamshire, 1 am informed by Mr. Sibbald that a number of cedars were planted by Mr. Fowler, then head gardener, 42 years ago on a damp sandy soil and well sheltered by other trees. The average height of the Algerian cedars in 1906 was 48 feet, with an average girth of 4 feet 4 inches, and of the deodars 33 feet by 3½ feet. The majority of them are in good health, though the Algerian have made by far the best trees, and as the soil and climate of Fifeshire do not seem to be so favourable to the growth of trees generally as those of Perthshire, Morayshire, or parts of Ross-shire, this seems to prove that the tree may be planted in Scotland with good hopes of success.
The finest Atlas cedar in Ireland is at Fota, and is of the glaucous variety. It was planted, according to Lord Barrymore, in 1850, and measured in 1904 83 feet high by 7 feet 7 inches in girth (Plate 138). At Carton, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, a tree, which is, from its habit, apparently an Atlas cedar, was, in 1903, 80 feet high by 9 feet in girth, At Powerscourt a glaucous specimen was in the same year 50 feet high by 5 feet in girth.
In the south of France and North Italy this tree grows better and faster than in England. Perhaps the best that I have seen are in the public garden at Aix en Savoie, where there is a grove of splendid trees 90 to 95 feet high, though only planted in 1862. They average 6 to 7 feet in girth, and there are many self-sown seedlings near them. On the shores of the Lago Maggiore the tree succeeds perfectly, several fine trees in the grounds of the Villa Barbot near Intra being 90 feet or over, and one 7½ feet in girth. It seemed to me likely to become a most valuable forest tree in this region.(H.J.E.)
CEDRUS DEODARA, Deodar
    Cedrus Deodara, Lawson, Agric. Man. 381 (1836); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2428 (1838); Brandis, Forest Flora, 516 (1874), and Indian Trees, 691 (1906); Ravenscroft, Pinet. Brit. iii. 225 (1884); Masters, Gard. Chron. x. 423, f. 52 (1891); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 411 (1900).
    Cedrus Libani, Barrelier, var. Deodara, Hooker, Himal. Journ. i. 257 (1854), Nat. Hist. Rev. ii. 11, tt. 1–3 (1862), and Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 653 (1888); Collett, Flora Simlensis, 486 (1902); Gamble, Ind. Timbers, 710 (1902).
    Cedrus indica, Chambray, Arb. Res. Conif. 341 (1845).
    Pinus Deodara, Roxburgh, Hort. Beng. 69 (1814).
    Abies Deodara, Lindley, Penny Cycl. 9 (1833).
Young trees with pendulous leader. Branchlets always pendulous, grey and densely pubescent. Leaves up to 2 inches long, as thick as broad. Cones large and broad, ellipsoid, 4 to 5 inches long by 3 to 4 inches in diameter, rounded at the apex; scales 2 to 24 inches wide, with claw not inflected, usually less tomentose than in the other cedars.
Plate 138.
ALGERIAN CEDAR AT FOTA
Varieties
A considerable number of varieties have arisen in cultivation, ten being mentioned by Beissner.
1. Var. albo-spica. Growing shoots during spring and early summer of a milkywhite colour. Trees of this kind at Dropmore are pyramidal in habit, and make splendid growth. At Grayswood, Haslemere, a bushy form with this peculiar foliage has been noted.
2. Var. robusta. Branchlets stout; leaves longer and thicker than in the ordinary form.
3. Var. crassifolia. Branches short and stout; branchlets not pendulous; leaves short and thick.
4. Var. verticillata. Branchlets whorled.
5. Var. fastigiata. Fastigiate in habit.
6. Varieties with variegated foliage and with bright yellow leaves have also been noted. The glaucous tint has appeared in cultivation, and is met with in the wild state. A very glaucous tree at Castlewellan has been named var. nivea. Trees with thin, shining, deep green foliage have been distinguished as var. viridis.(A.H.)
Distribution
The deodar is found in the Western Himalaya; and extends eastwards to the Dauli river in Kumaon, occurring at 4000 to 10,000 feet, most common at 6000 to 8000 feet. It extends westwards through Kashmir to the Peiwar forests in the Kuram valley of Afghanistan.
According to Gamble, from whom I take the most of the following account, it is a gregarious tree, but rarely forms pure forests, though exceptions are met with, generally in the form of sacred groves; usually it is associated with Picea Morinda and Pinus excelsa, and three species of oak in their various zones. Sometimes the silver fir (Abies Pindrow) accompanies it, but more rarely; the cypress (Cupressus torulosa) in its favourite localities joins it; the yew is often found under it; and at low elevations it mixes with Pinus longifolia.
Among other trees commonly found with it may be mentioned Betula alnoides, Populus ciliata, Æsculus indica, elm, hazel, hornbeam, maples, bird-cherry, holly (Ilex dipyrena), Pieris ovalifolia, and rhododendron; while among the shrubs commonly found in deodar forests may specially be noted species of Berberis, Indigofera, Desmodium, Cotoneaster, Euonymus, Salix, especially Salix elegans, Viburnum, Lonicera, Parrotia, and rose, while Clematis montana, Vitis semicordata, and ivy, are frequently met with climbing over and festooning its branches.
In the outer ranges the deodar forests chiefly clothe the northern and western slopes of the ridges, while in the interior hills, to which the rainfall of the south-west monsoon still reaches, they are found on all aspects, but less pure. Beyond the region of the south-west monsoon the deodar is still found, but gets ​gradually scarcer, and in such places its companions may be Pinus Gerardiana and Quercus Ilex.
The deodar can attain a very great size. Thomson mentions one near Nachar, on the Sutlej, that was 35½ feet in girth. Dr. Stewart measured one at Kiuarsi in the valley of the Ravi that was 44 feet at 2 feet, and 36 feet at 6 feet from the ground; another about 900 years old was 34½ feet in girth. Minniken records a tree at Punang, in Bashahr, that was 150 feet high and had a girth of over 36 feet, the clean bole being 45 feet long. Dr. Schlich measured a tree in the Sutlej valley 250 feet high with a girth of 20 feet.
In the Dumrali block in the Tehri-Garhwal leased forests a fallen tree was unearthed 90 feet long and over 7 feet in diameter, which had been dead for at least 100 years, and was, when it fell, probably 550 years old. When cut up it gave 460 metre-gauge sleepers. I am indebted to Mr. J.H. Lace for the illustration (Plate 139) representing a group of deodars in the Himalayas.
A great section in the corridor of the forest school at Dehra Dún is 23 feet in girth, with 665 annual rings. The number of annual rings to the inch varies much according to the elevation and rainfall, but averages about 8 to 12, though in the Kuram valley Bagshawe found an average of about 21.
As an ornamental tree there are few in the world that can compare with the deodar. From the Lebanon cedar and the Atlas cedar it differs somewhat in appearance, but even to an expert, in the collections of Europe, it is not always easy to recognise to which of the three species a given specimen belongs. Roughly, however, the deodar is distinguished by means of its drooping branches and its longer needles. Two well-marked varieties are recognisable in the forests, the one with dark green, the other with silvery foliage. The latter variety, well known in European collections, is found wild in ravines at a comparatively low level. Gamble saw it in Jaunsar, in the upper Dharagadh, in ravines at from 4000 to 6000 feet, and believes that the variety comes true from seed.
Deodar trees are often lopped for litter, and if the leading shoot is not damaged, the tree grows on well enough; when the leading shoot is cut or damaged, the tree shows a great tendency to form others; and frequently several erect shoots, with the appearance of young trees, may be seen growing up straight from its branches. The deodar may be almost said to produce coppice shoots, for, as Brandis remarks, if only a small branch be left to a stump, it will send out shoots and grow well, eventually, perhaps, forming a new tree.
Plate 139.
DEODARS IN THE HIMALAYA
Cultivation
The best account we have of the introduction of the deodar is given by Ravenscroft, who states that the Hon. Leslie Melville sent seeds in 1831 which were sown at Melville in Fifeshire, at Dropmore, and elsewhere.
Lord H. Bentinck sent some to Welbeck in 1832, but it was not until 1841 that the Right Honourable T.F. Kennedy, then at the head of the Woods and Forests, took steps to procure seed in large quantities from the Himalayas. His proceedings are described at great length in the Thirty-first Report of the Commissioners of Woods, pp. 168-172, and pp. 440-454 (1853), and further in the Thirty-fourth Report (1856), pp. 87, 88, and pp. 120-122. From this it appears that 60,000 seedlings were distributed in the spring of 1856 amongst the New, Dean, and Delamere forests, and a further 40,000 were sent out in the following autumn.
I am indebted to Mr. E. Stafford Howard, C.B., for information as to the results of these experiments as given in letters from the Hon. Gerald Lascelles and the late Mr. P. Baylis. The former says:—"I have made search for any records of the planting of the deodars, but can find nothing worthy of quotation. It is a fact that it was very largely planted here, as we can see for ourselves,—more, however, as an avenue or ornamental tree than, strictly speaking, for timber. Large quantities were raised in the nursery at Rhinefield, which at that time was managed by one Nelson, who in a small book speaks of the very large experience he has had in raising and transplanting deodars. The tree is, however, a failure by reason of the way in which it suddenly dies off, unaccountably, when it is about forty or fifty years old. There are some notable successes, such as the grove at Boldrewood and others, but I must have cut hundreds which had died off suddenly."
Mr. Baylis wrote on 8th May 1905: "I cannot give much definite information on the subject, though Crown Keeper Smith remembers some deodars being planted about 1857 along the sides of the rides in the High Meadow estate; but large numbers of these have perished, and there are no very fine trees among those that are left. A ride along the top of the Churchill enclosure was also planted about the same time with similar trees; but many of these also have died, and I cannot say that any of them have thriven well, though one tree has occasionally borne cones. I think that the climate here is too cold and damp for them to thrive, and that they cannot stand the damp cold of our winters in the Forest, though on the slopes of the Malvern hills they flourish fairly well."
This liability of the deodar to die after attaining considerable size has been often noticed, and, so far as I have observed, is most common on soils which are poor in lime.
​The Earl of Ducie informs me that in 1854, and for several years afterwards, he planted many deodars at Tortworth, both on the old red sandstone and on the mountain limestone. Many of these have perished after thirty to forty years' growth, without any apparent reason, except that in one case where only six out of about ninety remain, it is probable that they were infected with disease by the dead roots of beech trees which previously occupied the ground. Very few deodars at this place seem likely to attain a great age, and contrast unfavourably with the Cedar of Lebanon. But at Miserden Park, in the same county, on a dry oolite limestone, at an elevation of at least 600 feet, a line of deodars about sixty years old have remained healthy, though their growth here is much slower than at Tortworth.
At Poltimore, near Exeter, there is a fine avenue of deodars which were planted in 1851–52, and have grown to an average height of 70 to 80 feet in 1906, most of them being extremely vigorous, but there are several blanks in this avenue.
The cause of these deaths is explained by Mr. R.L. Anderson in a note published in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, i. 216, who states that the fungus now known as Armillaria mellea, Vahl., was present on the roots of one of these deodars; and as the best means of checking its spread to other healthy trees, recommends trenching the ground round the affected tree, digging up and burning its roots, and scattering gas lime over the ground where they have been.
At Castle Menzies, in Perthshire, of a number of deodars, which were planted by the late Sir R. Menzies about 1852 to commemorate the birth of his son, on soil which was too wet to suit them, though Tsuga albertiana and Picea sitchensis have succeeded very well close by, several are dead, and all are more or less stunted, though one of these trees measuring 7½ feet in girth was successfully transplanted in February 1907, and had not lost a leaf when I saw it in the following July.
I have not myself gathered any ripe seed of the deodar in England, but there is a tree growing in Kew Gardens between the main gate and the Director's office which measures 37 feet by 4 feet 8 inches, and was raised from seed produced in 1861 or 1862 by a tree at Killerton, and sent by the late Sir Thomas Acland to Kew in February 1868. Mr. Smith, the then Curator of Kew, was so much impressed by the good quality of the soil from the top of Killerton Hill in which this tree was raised, that two truck loads of it were sent to Kew.
The earliest record of the deodar producing fruit in England is of a tree at Bury Hill, near Dorking, which produced cones in 1852, when it was 28 feet high. Cones have also been borne on trees at Dropmore, Sunninghill, Bishopsteigntonnear Teignmouth, Enys in Cornwall, and Fota in Ireland. Seedlings have been raised from home-grown seed at Rozel Bay' in Jersey and at Bicton.
A deodar in Kew Gardens produced cones in 1887, according to a note in Gardeners' Chronicle, ii. 248 (1887), where it is stated that the production of cones on this species in this country has hitherto been a rare occurrence. At The Coppice, Henley, the seat of Sir Walter Phillimore, Bart., and at Shiplake House, the ​residence of Miss Phillimore, there are deodars coning profusely at present, probably on account of the hot summer of 1906. At White Knights Park, Reading, there is a seedling now about 8 feet in height, and supposed to be 16 years old, which germinated on a vine border, the seed having come from a tree which measures 75 feet in height and 10 feet in girth.
In India the cones are often much damaged by the larvæ of a Pyralid moth which eats out the seeds, and the saplings are attacked by the well-known fungus Trametes radiciperda, which spreads underground through the roots from tree to tree. The leaves are also attacked by Uredinous fungi, especially by Æcidium cedri, Barclay, which forms small yellow spots and causes them to fall. '
As regards the comparative hardiness to severe winter frosts of the three cedars we have valuable evidence collected by Mr. Palmer in 1860–61. Reports were received from no less than 211 places in England, Scotland, and Ireland. "The winter of 1860–61 was the most severe that has happened since its introduction. It was a winter such as had scarcely any parallel for severity in the memory of man, and unless some general change of climate should take place, it may be looked upon as exceedingly improbable that any cold of greater intensity should again visit us. The effect of that winter upon the deodar may therefore be taken as a safe guide in judging of its suitableness for our climate; what the effect was we are, as already mentioned, enabled, through the kindness of Mr. Palmer, to state with accuracy.
Mr. Palmer's record of observations shows that the deodar is by no means so hardy a tree as the larch, and also that it is the least hardy of any of the cedars. There is no instance of any of the larches reported to him having been injured by the cold of 1860; while out of the deodars growing at 211 places in Great Britain and Ireland, plants were killed at 55, and were uninjured only at 80, having been more or less injured at the remaining 76, a percentage of frailty much greater than we should have anticipated. The Cedar of Lebanon and the Cedrus atlantica proved more hardy, and about equal between themselves. The following summary will show the actual results of Mr. Palmer's report on all three:—
It may be interesting to notice in what proportion the three different parts of the kingdom suffered. It was as follows:—
Remarkable Trees
The two finest deodars, as regards size and symmetry, that I have seen in Great Britain are at Bicton, where cones were produced, according to Pinet. Brit., as long ago as 1858. One of these on the lawn measured in 1902 was 80 feet by 11 feet 8 inches (Plate 140). The other is near the ornamental water in a more sheltered situation, and was then 90 feet by 9 feet 1 inch.
Another of about the same height at Beauport has an erect top, and looks as if it might become much taller. The tallest reported at the Conifer Conference was at Studley Royal, and was then 70 feet by 7½ feet; but when I visited that place I saw no very large tree of the kind.
At Dropmore there is a handsome tree which in 1905 was 77 feet by 8 feet 10 inches, and had many of the woody knots embedded in the bark that are sometimes seen in the cedars, It is said to have been planted in 1834.
At Westonbirt, a tree, planted by the late Mr. Holford, about 85 feet by 8 feet 9 inches, is one of the largest and best shaped that I have seen. A deodar of peculiar habit at Linton Park, Kent, reported to be 79 feet high, is figured in Gardeners' Chronicle, December 12, 1903, fig. 159.
At Barton there is a fine tree branched to the ground, which in 1904 was 76 feet by 9½ feet. At Highclere there is a handsome tree about 75 feet by 8 feet 4 inches, which was planted by the then King of Spain in 1844. At Williamstrip, on rather heavy soil, there is a healthy tree of 72 feet by 8 feet.
At Ombersley Court, near Worcester, there is a very fine tree 84 feet by 8 feet 4 inches, which has the erect habit of atlantica; but the drooping branchlets show it to be a deodar.
At the Frythe, near Welwyn, Herts, a large deodar was cut down some years ago; and from the side of the stump there is now (1906) a young tree springing up, quite vigorous and healthy, and about 25 feet high. At Chart Park, Surrey, there is a tree 89 feet by 8 feet 11 inches; and adjoining this place, in the Tunnel Park, Deepdene, there is another fine tree 77 feet by 9 feet, both measured by Henry in 1905. At Fulmodestone, Norfolk, a tree planted in 1861 was in 1905 66 feet by 7 feet 4 inches in girth. At Shiplake House, near Henley, a tree, planted in 1852, was 73 feet by 7 feet 9 inches in 1905, and is bearing numerous cones in the present year. A deodar, growing on Haddington Hill, near Wendover, at 800 feet elevation, is 63 feet by 5 feet 10 inches.
There are many trees of from 60 to 70 feet in other parts of England, but we have seen none which call for special notice.
In Scotland the deodar is only hardy in the warmer parts of the country, and does not seem to have attained anything like the same dimensions as in England or Ireland. At Poltalloch, notwithstanding the wet and windy climate, it grows fairly well and has attained over 50 feet. At Rossdhu, on Loch Lomond, it is even taller.
Plate 140.
DEODAR AT BICTON
At Smeaton-Hepburn, a tree planted in 1841, when it was 2½ feet high, measured in 1902, 55 feet in height and 6 feet 7 inches in girth.
The finest deodar in Ireland is growing at Fota, Co. Cork, and measured, in 1903, 84 feet high by 7 feet 2 inches in girth. At Coollattin, Wicklow, there are two trees, one of which measured, in 1906, 53 feet by 6 feet 10 inches. At Hamwood, Co. Meath, a tree, supposed to have been planted in 1844, was 74 feet by 7½ feet in 1905. At Mount Shannon, Limerick, there is a tree 66 feet by 8 feet 5 in. in 1905. At Emo Park, Portarlington, a tree measured, in 1907, 61 feet by 7 feet 4 inches, and was thriving; but in the dry climate of Queen's County, the deodar as a rule is not a satisfactory tree.
Timber
The timber is the most important of any in North-Western India, and supplies a large quantity of railway sleepers, bridge, and building timber. Gamble says that it is rather brittle to work, and does not take paint or varnish well. It has also a very strong odour which, although pleasant in the open air, is not so in a room. It is extremely durable, probably with cypress (Cupressus torulosa) the most durable of Himalayan woods. Stewart mentions the pillars of the Shah Hamadin Mosque at Srinagar in Kashmir, which date from 1426 a.d., and were quite sound when he wrote. Its grain is so straight that the logs can be split into boards, which are afterwards trimmed with an adze; and shingles for roofing, according to Webber, stand the changes of climate for centuries without any sign of decay.
The weight of well-seasoned dry wood of average growth is about 35 pounds per cubic foot, branch wood being very much heavier and more full of resin.
Oil is extracted from it by distillation, which is a dark brown, strong, and unpleasant smelling fluid, said to be a good antiseptic, and serves to coat the inflated skins known as "mussucks" used for crossing the Himalayan rivers. (H.J.E.)
* ↑ This growth is quite exceptional in my experience.—(H.J.E.)
* ↑ But on writing to Captain Norman, who was the authority for this, he tells me that the tree is now dead, and that in his opinion the deciduous habit, which was regular and unfailing, was due to constitutional weakness, caused by uncongenial surroundings, in proof of which he states that another tree at the same place raised from a seed taken from the same cone, was much more robust and showed no abnormal tendency.—(H.J.E.)
* ↑ Hardy Coniferous Trees, 27 (1896).
* ↑ A specimen of the dwarf cedar, only 4 feet high and of considerable age, is growing in grounds adjoining one of the oldest parks at Hemel Hempstead. The branches are flattened, horizontal, and very close together, giving the plant a dense, stiff appearance. —Gard. Chron. xix. 563 (1896).
* ↑ Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 301, 302 (1891).
* ↑ But at a later period Sir J. Hooker changed his opinion on this subject, and believed that the wood used by Solomon and by Nebuchadnezzar in buildings was the Lebanon cedar.
* ↑ Gard. Chron. 1862, p. 572.
* ↑ Rustem Pasha informed Sir W. Thiselton Dyer that he had built a wall to protect the young cedars from grazing, but at a later period this was broken down.
* ↑ Collected in Caria by Pinard, according to Boissier, Flora Orientalis, v. 699 (1881). Dr. Stapf informs us that Luschan also saw the cedar in this province.
* ↑ Cf. Stapf, Beiträge Flora Lycien, Carien, u. Mesopotamien, 2 (1885).
* ↑ Asie Mineure, ii. 496 (1860).
* ↑ Reise Cilicischen Taurus, 58, 370 (1858).
* ↑ Gartenflora, 1897, pp. 182, 206. Siehe has sent seed from the Cilician Taurus to various places, and I have two vigorous young trees raised from them.
* ↑ Boulger, in his biographical sketch of Uvedale in Journ. Bot. xxix. 13 (1891), gives some details of the Enfield cedar, but has not been able to verify the statement that it dates from 1670. The Enfield cedar is figured in Gard. Chron. xxxii. 31, f. 12 (1902). Cf. also Gard. Chron. viii. 505 (1890).
* ↑ The statement in Gard. Chron. ii. 194 (1887), that there is mention in Belon's works, which were published in 1553 and 1558, that the cedar of Lebanon existed in France before 1558 is erroneous; and it is probable that the tree was not introduced into France till 1734. Cf. Loudon, p. 2414.
* ↑ The last of the cedars in the Physic Garden at Chelsea, which had been dead for some years, was removed in 1904. In 1882 it was 60 feet high and 13 feet 9 inches in girth at 3 feet from the ground. Gard. Chron. xxxv. pp. 185, 224 (1904). Cf. also ibid. xxvi. 336, f. 70 (1886), where a figure of the tree is given.
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xxv. 42 (1899).
* ↑ Cf. Gard. Chron. xxvii. 124 (1900), where the finest cedar at Goodwood was reported to be 29½ feet in girth in 1900.
* ↑ Genus Pinus, ii. 91 (1832).
* ↑ This is not confirmed by Mr. Challis's statement on p. 459; and probably all the Wilton cedars were not of the same age. Dr. Richard Pococke travelled in the East during 1737 to 1742.
* ↑ History of Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest, Plate 14.
* ↑ Figured in Gard. Chron. xxvi. 521, f. 102, and 553, f. 109 (1886).
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xiv. 392 (1880).
* ↑ Eastern Arboretum, p. 84, plate opposite p. 104 (1841).
* ↑ Trans. Eng. Arb. Soc. 1887, p. 135.
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xxv. 138, fig. 52 (1899).
* ↑ Essays on Natural History, 69 (1808).
* ↑ Woods and Forests, Dec. 26, 1883, p. 59.
* ↑ Woods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, p. 135 (1883).
* ↑ These are said by Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 114 (1838), to have been brought direct from the Lebanon by an ancestor of Lord Tremblestown, and to be the oldest in Treland.
* ↑ Traité Conif. 78 (1867).
* ↑ An account of it in Revue Horticole, 1907, p. 465, gives the dimensions as 105 feet high by 24 feet in girth at one metre from the ground.
* ↑ In the Eastern States it is known as red cedar, but this term is applied to Thuya plicata in the Pacific States.
* ↑ Beissner's figure represents a ripe cone, collected on Mt. Troodos by Herr v. St. Paul.
* ↑ Published in Nature, xxix. 597 (1884). Cf. also Proc. R. Geog. Soc. xi. 709 (1889).
* ↑ Parly, Paper: Encl. 2 in Cyprus, No, 366, of 1881, p. 28.
* ↑ Mitt. Deut. Dendr. Ges. 1905, p. 181.
* ↑ Manetti gives the name only without any description, in the second supplement to his catalogue (1845), and not in the first supplement (1844) as usually stated. Endlicher first described the Atlas cedar from plants 6 inches high, sent in 1847 by Manetti from the Royal Gardens at Monza (Modicia) near Milan.
* ↑ Decaisne, Rev. Hort. ii. 41 (1853). Cf. Gard. Chron. 1853, p. 132.
* ↑ Cedrus argentea, Renou, Ann. Forest. iii. 2 (1854).
* ↑ Cf. Fliche in Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 564, note 2 (1897).
* ↑ Nadelholzkunde, 304 (1891).
* ↑ Var. fastigiata, a pyramidal form, with branches ascending like those of the Lombardy Poplar, originated as a seedling in Lalande's nursery at Nantes. Cf. Gard. Chron. vii. 197 (1890).
* ↑ Var. aurea, young foliage of a rich golden colour, which changes to the normal green of the species in the second year. This variety is mentioned by Kent, loc. cit.
* ↑ Gay, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, iii, 39 (1856).
* ↑ Bibliotheque Universelle de Genève, 1837, pp. 439, 440.
* ↑ Les Zones Botaniques de l'Algérie, 7 (1888).
* ↑ Lefebvre, Les Forêts de Cèdre, 1 (1894).
* ↑ A fine picture of a forest in Algeria is given in Garden and Forest, viii. 335, f. 47 (1895).
* ↑ Les Forêts de Cèdre (Alger-Mustapha, 1894).
* ↑ Les Forêts de l'Algérie, pp. 406–421 (Alger-Mustapha, 1900).
* ↑ Hutchison, Trans. R. Scot. Arb. Soc. xiii. 211, states, but does not give his authority, that cedars were cut here, the diameter of which was so great, that it was necessary to join two saw-blades, each 6½ feet long, in order to fell the trees.
* ↑ Only the central part of the cone contains good seed. In January the basal scales of many cones were still remaining around the central axis, the other scales having fallen much earlier.
* ↑ An excellent illustration in Garden and Forest, viii. 335 (1895), shows the flat-topped habit of mature trees in their native forest.
* ↑ The odour disappears after exposure to the air for a few years, and is not noticeable in the cedar furniture which is so common in the houses at Batna and Téniet-el-Hâad. Cf. Lefebvre, Les Forêts de l'Algérie, 350 (1900).
* ↑ A tree at Grimston, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, reported in 1900 to be 70 feet high and 13 feet in girth at three feet from the ground, which was said to be sixty-five years old, is probably a Lebanon cedar. Cf. Gard. Chron. xxviii. 210 (1900).
* ↑ Sir A. Buchan-Hepburn in Proc. Berwick Nat. Club, xviii, 210 (1904).
* ↑ Nadelholzkunde, 307, 308.
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xxxvii. 44, 76 (1905).
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xxxvii. 59, 105 (1905).
* ↑ Ibid. xxv. 399, fig. 146 (1899).
* ↑ Webber, in Forests of Upper India, 331 (1902), says: "I have seen deodars 40 feet in girth and 250 feet high, the age of which must be 1000 years or more"; and Pakenham Edgworth informed Bunbury that he had measured deodars 46 feet in girth. Cf. Lyell, Life of Sir C.J.F. Bunbury, ii. 238 (1906).
* ↑ Western Himalaya and Tibet, 64 (1852).
* ↑ A tree raised from these seeds was planted near the Director's Office at Kew, and had attained a height of 32 feet in 1864. It became diseased and was removed in 1888. Cf. Kew Hand List of Coniferæ, xiv. (1903).
* ↑ The best deodar at Boldrewood is now 64 feet high.
* ↑ Gard. Chron. 1852, p. §82, and x. 279 (1891).
* ↑ Ibid. x. 423, 435, 436, 492, 679 (1891).
* ↑ Ibid. 1869, p. 1279.
* ↑ Published in Ravenscroft, Pinet. Brit. iii. 242 (1884).
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xxv. 138 (1899).
* ↑ Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn in Proc. Berwick Nat. Club, xviii. 210 (1904).
* ↑ Forests of Upper India, 41 (1902).