230 THE BOOK OF EVERGREENS. 



inhabiting Mount Lebanon, attended by a number of 

 bishops, priests, and monks, and followed by 5,000 or 6,000 

 devotees, annually celebrate in their shade the festival of 

 the Transfiguration, which is called the ' Feast of Cedars,' 

 and ecclesiastical censures are denounced against those 



O 



who shall injure these consecrated trees." . 



In this country, the Cedar of Lebanon is found to be 

 pretty generally hardy, excepting in a few instances where 

 the trees have been in exposed and unfavorable situations. 

 With us it has succeeded to our entire satisfaction, and we 

 can therefore recommend it without reserve, if proper 

 cultivation and a moderate amount of care be given to it. 

 We have every reason to believe that the Cedar of 

 Lebanon, in light, well-drained soil, will ultimately be suc- 

 cessful, if the growth is slow, and, in consequence, well 

 ripened. 



In England, ever since the year 1680, when it was first 

 introduced, it has given universal satisfaction, and the 

 splendid specimens enumerated by London, and mentioned 

 by Downing, are of large size. One specimen in particular, 

 at Sion House, is 72 feet high and 24 feet in circumference ; 

 and as a proof of its great rapidity of growth, three spec- 

 imens are mentioned which made an increase in the cir- 

 cumference of their trunks of respectively 5 feet 1 inch, 3 

 feet 9 inches, and 3 feet 8 inches, in 32 years. These trees 

 were growing at Hopetoun House, Scotland, and were 

 planted in the year 1748 ; and Michaux mentions that 100 

 years after this species was introduced into England, two 

 of these original specimens, growing in the medical gar- 

 dens at Chelsea, near London, were upwards of 12^- feet in 

 circumference at 2 feet from the ground, and extended 

 their limbs more than 20 feet in every direction. The fine 

 stock of trees now becoming so plentiful in that country 

 were grown from seed furnished by these old plants. 



The ornamental character of this tree is of the highest 

 order, but it should invariably be grown singly, and never 



