CHAP. CXI 1 1. 



CONl'FERi*:. C'E^DIIUS 



2423 



the attention of every aitist. I have seen numerous sketches and drawings 

 of the scene around them, and I may venture to say that it was the cedars, 

 and they only, that were the inducement. Those in the Botanic Garden 

 at Chelsea (see fig. 2270. in p. 2405.) are never passed unheeded; thus 

 showing how valuable cedars are in landscape composition, and, consequently 

 in landscape-gardening," (Gard. Mag., i. p. 122.) 



The architectural character of the cedar, noticed by Mr. Thompson, has 

 rendered this tree a great favourite with painters, and more especially with 

 the justly celebrated Martin. This great artist has introduced the flat head of 

 the aged cedar into his imaginary view of the Garden of Eden (Jig. 2280.) ; 



2280 



into the terraces of the gardens of Babylon (Jig. 2281.); and into his benic 

 irfea/of the gardens of Nineveh (^fig. 2282.), as shown in his celebrated picture 

 of the fall of that city. 



Soil, Situation, Propagatioji, ^c. The cedar, as may have been observed in 

 the case of the Chelsea trees, thrives well in dry gravelly soils, where the roots 

 can have access to water; which may be said to be the case with most of the 

 Abietm?id. Perhaps it may be sufficient to observe, that the cedar will grow 

 in every soil and situation suitable for the larch. We are not certain that it 

 will grow equally well with that tree at great elevations ; though we have 

 httle doubt of it, provided it were planted in masses. In the neighbourhooil 

 of London, it has certainly attained the largest size in deep sandy soil, as at 

 Syon, Whitton, and Pain's Hill; but the sand at these places is not poor; and 

 at Whitton, where the tree has attained the greatest height and bulk, the 

 roots are within reach of water. Boutcher observes that no tree will grow 

 in more forbidding^ poor, and hungry soil, than the cedar ; and he instances, 

 in proof of this, the trees on Mount Lebanon ; but these, in point of height 

 and the spread of the branches, are mere bushes in comparison with those at 

 Whitton. The cones, which, as already observed, are not ripe till the autumn 

 of the third year, will keep five or six years after being taken from the 

 tree, so that there is never any risk of getting seeds too old to vegetate, in 

 purchasing the cones that are imported from the Levant. If cones produced 

 in Britain are kept a year after being gathered, they may be opened with 

 greater ease than when recently taken from the tree. To facilitate the opera- 

 tion of extracting the seeds, the cones may be steeped in water for a day or 

 two, and afterwards split by driving a sharp conical iron spike through their 



