CHAP. CXIII. 



CONI'FER^. CE^DRUS. 



'240r> 



The Chelsea Cedars. 



The rate of growth of the cedar is generally considered slow ; but, under 

 favourable circumstances, it is at least as rapid as that of other resinous 

 trees. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, in his very able article on the cedar in 

 the Nouveau Bu Hamel, compares the rate of growth of the tree in Eng- 

 land and France, by showing the increase in a given 

 number of years of the trees at Chelsea, and of that 

 in the Jardin des Plantes. The trees in the Chelsea 

 Garden were planted in 1G83, being then 3 ft. hi<;li 

 and, in 17G6, two of them were upwards of 12 ft. 6 in 

 in girt at 2 ft. from the ground, and their branches 

 extended more than 20 ft. on every side ; which 

 branches, Miller adds, " though they "were produced 

 12 ft. or 14 ft. above the surface, did, at every termi- 

 nation, hang ver}- near the ground, and thereby afford 



a goodly shade in the hottest season of the year." The cedar in the Jardin 

 des Plantes measured, in 1786, at the ground, 4 ft. Gin. French (about 5ft. 

 English) in circumference; in 1802, according to M. Dutour {Notiv. Diet. 

 d'Hisf. Kat., iv. p. 449.), it was 7 ft. 10 in. (nearly 8 ft. 6 in.) ; and in 1812, 

 when it was 78 years old, it was 8 ft. 8 in. (!) ft. 4iin.) In 1834, according 

 to the Return Paper we received from M. Mirbel, the same tree, then exactly 

 100 years old, was 10ft. Gin. (II ft. 4 in.) in circumference; and the largest 

 of the Chelsea cedars, in the same year, was nearly 15 ft. in circumference, 

 they being upwards of 150 years old. The rapid growth of the Chelsea 

 cedars during the first 83 years is accounted for by the circumstance of their 

 standing near a pond, into which their roots extended ; and, when this pond 

 was filled up (which it was a few years after 17CG, when Miller measured 

 them), their growth was instantly checked; and so much so, that, in 1793, 

 when measured by Sir Joseph Banks, the largest was only 12 ft. lUin. in 

 circumference, having in- ' 2271 



creased only 5^ in. in 30 

 years. The cedar in the 

 Jardin des Plantes, though 

 the most celebrated, is not 

 the largest in France : 

 another plant, brought 

 from England by Jussieu 

 at the same time, and 

 planted in the garden of 

 the Chateau de Montigny, 

 had a trunk, in 1832, when 

 measured by M. Murat, 

 nearly 17 ft. French (18 ft. 

 .5 in. English) in circum- 

 ference at 4 ft. from the 

 ground. It had lost its 

 leading shoot, and was only 

 a little higher than the tree 

 in the Jardin des Plantes. 

 The two largest cedars at 



Whitton, which, in 1837, were 105 years old from the seed (see p. 5/.), 

 were upwards of 70 ft. high, with trunks 14 ft. fiin. in circumference at 2 ft. 

 from the ground. The pinaster, Scotch pine, silver fir, and larch, at 

 Whitton, in the same soil anil situation, had not made nearly so much tunber ; 

 though it is proper to state that these last kinds had rather less room than 

 the cedars. One of the lars^.^st of these cedars was blown down m the violent 

 storm of wind in November, 183G, Tiie lower part of the trunk, after being 

 squared, measured nearly 4 ft. on the side; and the annual growths were so 

 large, that 20 of them measured across 6* in. The largest of these annual 

 layers was no less than i in., and the smalfest exceeded i ni. A plank of this 



7 ct 4 



The Croomc Cedar 



