ON THE CEDAR OF LEBANON, ETC. 201 
inches in length. The seed is furnished with a wing, and is of 
the same colour and size as that of the silver fir. 
Fructification.—According to M. Louis Vilmorin, who has 
observed with much care the fructification of the Cedar of 
Lebanon, in the climate of Paris, the male and female flowers 
usually begin to appear in May, but it is necessary to examine 
them closely in order to distinguish them. The male flowers require 
for their growth till the end of September, or even the beginning 
of October, by which period they are perfectly distinct, and throw 
off a yellow powder. The female flowers require the same period 
for their growth, but are less visible because they are smaller, and 
they are transformed into cones after their fecundation. These 
cones begin to grow the following year when the sap rises. They 
are at first light green, then they assume a violet tint; they attain 
full size by the end of the autumn, and during the winter they 
acquire a brown-grey colour. The following year they remain 
upon the tree ; and it is only during the months of February and 
March of the third year that the scales with the two seeds attached 
to each burst from the cones and fall to the ground. Thus, sup- 
posing that the cones are formed in December of the year of 
flowering, they will remain about twenty-seven months on the 
tree before the scales and seeds fall. 
M. Duhamel de Fougeroux has, in the park of his chateau of 
Vrigny, near Pithiviers (Loiret), five cedars which were planted 
by his grand-uncle Duhamel-Dumonceau, one in 1757, the other 
four in 1770; and he has sent me the following observations 
which he made of the flowering and fructification of these cedars, 
The male flowers are observable towards the end of September, 
and they attain maturity and give off a yellow powder in October, 
by which time the female flowers are also distinguishable. The 
following year the cones attain to nearly their full size, and during 
the winter assume the brown colour which they retain. In the 
following July the seed has acquired its maturity, but it is very 
difficult to extract it from the cone. In the month of June or 
July following, that is, about the middle of their third year, the 
scales fall with the seeds, and in August there is nothing left but 
the bare stems of the cones on the branches, as in the silver firs. 
Thus the cones remain about thirty months on the tree from the 
time they are put forth till the scales and the seeds fall. If the 
cones are gathered a short time before the period when they 
should burst and the seeds fall, the scales can be detached from 
