2G4 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



indeed we question much whetlier a more graceful, ornamental, 

 and hardy tree has yet found its way into the British Isles. Few 

 conifers are more accommodating as to soil. We have found it to 

 be quite at home and to grow with the greatest freedom in soil 

 of the most ojiposite descriptions. The timber, as produced in 

 its native country, is of very superior quality ; but a comparison 

 with that grown in England has rather surprised ns, the home- 

 grown timber being rather soft, fine-grained, and not very lasting. 

 It is, however, but fair to add that the specimens of wood with 

 which Ave experimented were immature, so that the lasting 

 pi-operties were materially lessened. As compared with that of 

 the cedar of Lebanon of equal age, it is of better quality. A 

 native of the Himalaya Mountains. Introduced in 1831. 



37. C. Lihani (Cedar of Lebanon), with its massive and well- 

 clothed trunk, far-spreading and ponderous branches, and deep 

 glaucous green foliage, is beyond doubt one of the most distinct 

 and easily recognised of all trees. For planting amongst the 

 general run of forest trees, this cedar is not well adapted. It 

 requires plenty of room for spread of both root and branch, else 

 it soon puts on a miserable appearance, the leaves becoming scant 

 and yellowish green, the growth short, stunted, and prone to die 

 off prematurely, thus imparting to the tree a half-starved look 

 that is anything but desirable where a healthy state of the woods 

 is of first importance. Hardly a year passes that we have not, 

 on a large English estate where soil and situation are unusually 

 well suited for the growth of exotic conifers, to remove one or 

 two specimens of the cedar of Lebanon owing to ill-health, but 

 how caused is a puzzle that has baffled our most careful in- 

 vestigation. Low lying damp ground is not the cause, for others 

 lying high and dry are similarly affected, and if soil be the cause, 

 then that of eveiy description almost must be at fault, for on 

 rough sand, heavy loam, vegetable refuse, shale I'ock with light 

 sandy loam at top, chalky soils in which the tree usually grows 

 with great vigour, as well as carefully-prepared peat bog, they 

 have gradually become unhealthy, and ultimately died out alto- 

 gether. I am not now referring wholly to woodland trees, but 

 rather to those grown as single specimens for lawn and park 

 decoration. Seldom does the disease, or premature death from 

 other causes, attack trees of less than about twenty years' growth. 

 The first indication of decay is want of foliage, which becomes 

 scant and of an unhealthy colour, and in less than four years the 



