396 
labour, to learn the methods of keeping books and become 
familiar with the details of office work generally, he was posted 
to Montserrat as Agricultural Instructor, subsequently becoming 
Curator of the Botanic Station in that Island. Early in 1905, he 
left Montserrat to become Curator of the Botanic Station in 
Antigua. Later in the same year he was transferred to Trinidad, 
where he held charge of the Government House Gardens under 
Mr. Hart till his death, which occurred, at the age of 32, in the 
course of what appears to have been a somewhat general outbreak 
Mr. Jordan was a man of sincere religious convictions. He 
married .dr.r r»M<niuir tlm W.->r [ikIk--, and has left a widow and 
one child. With exemplary forethought he had made provision 
for them by adequately insuring his life. 
The Old Cedars at Kew.— The death of one of the fine old Cedars 
of Lebanon in the gardens unpleasantly reminds us that their 
numbers are gradually and surely diminishing. The adverse 
influences of London smoke and a sterile soil no doubt shorten 
the lives of these trees in Kew, and their decadence has certainly 
been accelerated by the large proportion of droughty summers 
experienced in the Thames Valley since 1893. The particular 
tree whose death we record was one of the group growing near 
the Pagoda. It was 75 ft. high and its trunk was 14 ft. 2 ins. in 
circumference near the base, and 11 ft. 7 ins. at 10 ft. from the 
ground. It contained about 300 cubic ft. of timber. The 
minuteness of the layers of wood put on in recent years 
makes it difficult to ascertain the exact age of this tree by counting 
i lit- annual rings, but, as near as one can tell, it was between ) 15 
and i:.<> years old. It is probable, therefore (allowing it to have 
been a few years old at the time), that it was planted about the 
time tUe Pagoda was completed (1762 . This is not a great age 
for the Cedar of Lebanon to attain, for there are specimens still in 
healthy existence in this country known to be a century older. 
But unless there comes a revolution in the methods of coal 
on in the metropolis, even that duration of life is not 
likely to be equalled by the trees planted in Kew during the last 
50 years. We have recently learnt from Sir Joseph Hooker— 
whose recollections of Kew go back more than 60 years— that, 
within his memory, the Cedars of Lebanon were growing so 
"ucHy all round the base of the Pagoda that the ground was 
quite hidden from the view of anyone looking down from the 
top. These trees have died one by one till only three remain, 
the remainder of the big Cedars are disposed about the gardens 
as follows :— Three on the mound to the west of the Pagoda 
known to the workmen as « Moss (? Mosque) Hill" ; three in the 
Rhododendron Dell ; two in the Herbarium grounds; and one 
near each of the following sites— Sun Temple, Brentford Gate, 
n7 ■ c .?" ec . fci on, Flagstaff, and Victoria Gate. Most of these 
(lb m all) girth from 12 to 14 ft. In addition to them, and 
representing, no doubt, a later planting, are five smaller specimens 
onfrl ^ ^ hodod 1 en i lron Dell, two near the Director's Office, and 
one near the B unk Rose Garden. 
