CHAP. CXlIIv CONiVeh/K. 6'E'UKUS. 2'it\5 



heaped up round the base of its trunk, as high as 3ft., about 30 years ago ; 

 and indeed, had not the tree been planted on a mound of rubbish, which was 

 dry, and consequently pervious to the atmosphere, the accumulation of soil 

 must have killed it. The cedar at Montigny, planted at the same time as that 

 in the Jardin des Plantes, but in a good soil, has a trunk at least one third 

 larger than that of the tree in the Jardin des Plantes. A cedar planted on 

 the estate of Du Hamel, at Vrigny, near Pithiviers, in 1743, had, in 

 18.3.5, a trunk 12ft. Sin. in circumference, at the height of 6ft. from the 

 ground, and 16 ft. in circumference at the base. This tree is between 70 ft. 

 and 80 ft. high, French (between 73 ft. 10 in. and 86 ft. 8 in. English), and 

 is in a very flourishing state, resembling a magnificent pyramid. M. Loise- 

 leur Deslongchamps mentions two other fine cedars at Vrigny, and several 

 at Denainvilliers ; both estates which belonged to the celebrated Du Hamel, 

 and which are now the property of his grand-nephew, M. Fougeroux, Other 

 remarkable cedars in the neighbourhood of Paris are, one in the ancient 

 garden of the Marechal des Noailles, at St. Germain; that in the garden 

 Marboeuf, in the Chanips-Elysees ; those of Trianon, which are from 8 ft. to 

 10 ft. in circumference, at the height of a man from the ground ; and one in the 

 park at Franconville, seven leagues north from Paris, the property of M. A. 

 Leroux, which, in May, 18.37, had a trunk 12 ft. 3 in. in circumference at the 

 base, and which was planted by a man who was still alive in 1837, and who 

 was then 90 years of age. (Hist, du Cedre du Liban, &c., p. 39.) 



It appears from the ages and dimensions of these trees, tliat the cedar 

 thrives fully as well in France as it does in England ; and, as there is a great 

 want of evergreens in the neighbourhood of Paris, and in all those parts of 

 France which have an equally cold climate, it seems very desirable that the 

 cedar should be more generally planted in that country than it at present is. 

 The greatest planter of cedars in France appears to have been the father 

 of the present Viscount Hericart de Thury, who, in 1780, planted many 

 trees on the mountain of St. Martin-le-pauvre, Department de I'Oisc. These 

 trees, in 1837, Loiseleur Deslongchamps informs us, were in a state of the most 

 vigorous vegetation. {Ibid., p. 45.) The tree is propagated in all the prin- 

 cipal French nurseries ; partly from imported cones, and partly from cones 

 ripened in the country. 



The botanical history of the cedar is short. Dodonaeus, and other ancient 

 obtanists, called it Cedrus magna, the great cedar, adding other epithets ; 

 but all agreeing that it was one of the Coniferee. Tournefort considered it a 

 larch, and called it iarix orientalis : in which he was followed by Du Hamel. 

 Miller called it Zyarix Cedrus. Linnaeus considered it to be a pine; and his 

 name for it of Pinus Cedrus has been adopted by most of the Continental and 

 British botanists. Poiret, in his Dictionnaire Encyclopedique, calls it /i^bies 

 Cedrus; and he has been followed by Loiseleur Deslongchamps, in his very able 

 article on the cedar in the Nouveau Du Hamel, and in his Histoire du Cedre, 

 &c., received by us since this article has been in type ; and by Dr. Lindley, 

 in the Penny Cyclopcedin. Barrelier, in his posthumous work, Plantce per Gal- 

 liam, Hi^paniam, et Italiam observatce, published in 1714, at Paris, by Jussieu, 

 makes it a distinct genus, and calls it Cedrus Libani. 



Poetical Allusions. The cedar is frequently mentioned by the Latin poets; 

 but most of the allusions appear to have reference to the junipers that are 

 called cedars, rather than to the cedar of Lebanon. Virgil, speaking of the 

 forests of Caucasus, says, — 



" Dant utile lignum 



Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrosque, cupressosque." Geor.,\\. 442. 



" Heaven their various plants for use designs ; 



For houses cedars, and for shipping pines. Dryden'sTrawi. ^ 



Ovid, in the first of his Elegies, says that an illuminated title, and paper stained 

 with the juice of the cedar, would ill agree with the unhappy circumstances of 

 their author: — 



" Net titulus minio, nee cedro charta notetur." Trisi ., i. 7. 



Alluding to the custom of anointing the leaves of books with cedar juice, to 

 preserve them froui the depredations of the worm, 



7 K 



