THE CEDAES OF LAKE COUCHICHING 



H. RACE 



Fig. 2485. Cedars at the Hermitage, Orillia. 



THE photo engravings which illustrate 

 this article will give one but a poor 

 idea of the beauty of the trees they are in- 

 tended to represent. What is there in tree 

 or shrub in all America more beautiful than 

 the common cedar, or American Arbor Vitae? 

 The cedars of Lebanon were noted for their 

 size ; those of America for their natural and 

 artistic beauty, but if left to nature these will 

 attain a symmetry in form, and a compact- 

 ness in growth unequalled by any other 

 evergreen. In a hedge, or clipped into any 

 of the grotesque shapes in which they are 

 often seen, they will stand more abuse and 

 live longer than any evergreen we have for 

 a similar purpose. The objection is that 

 they are too slow in growth, and in place of 

 them the Norway Spruce is too often chosen 

 in preference. We admit the objection, but 

 it sometimes pays to wait. 



If left to nature, the spruce for the park 

 or lawn will grow more rapidly, but it will 



be loose, open and sprawling, and in a few 

 years become more or less disfigured and 

 dirty from the dead and decaying inner 

 branches. The cedar, on the contrary, will 

 grow compact, faultless in shape and will 

 always be clean. If used for a hedge, or 

 trimmed into some unartistic shape as is 

 often the case, the cedar will endure for 

 years and revive its freshness as if ever 

 young, while the spruce will after a few 

 years begin to show its inner dead branches, 

 as mentioned above, and from that its 

 beauty is always more or less marred. 



My natural admiration for our native 

 cedar was greatly strengthened by a recent 

 visit to Orillia, and to the home of our Dir- 

 ector, Mr. C. L. Stephens, on one of the 

 points projecting into Lake Couchiching. 

 More beautiful cedars, left entirely to nature, 

 I never saw than those growing irregularly 

 on the somewhat extensive grounds about 

 this home, known as "The Hermitage." 

 The views given show the pathway through 



Fig. 2486. At the Hermitage. 



