414 CEDRUS DEODARA. 



from whence seeds were sent gratuitously to every one who would 

 pay the cost of the carriage. 



This abundant and cheap supply of seed resulted in Deodar seedlings 

 becoming for a time as plentiful as Larch and Scots Fir, and high 

 expectations were formed respecting their ultimate value as timber trees. 

 In less than twenty years afterwards the faith in the qualities of the 

 Deodar as a tree for economic planting in Great Britain began to be 

 challenged by experienced foresters, but their warning was disregarded 

 for a time. Another twenty years' experience of it, however, fully 

 justified the warning, and proved without need of further trial the 

 unsuitableness of the tree for British forestry. However nourishing the 

 young plants appear for a time, an enormous proportion of them perish 

 before they reach even a fractional part of the age and size attained 

 by their gigantic progenitors in their native forests. Xor is this 

 surprising : the Deodars in Great Britain are placed under climatic 

 conditions very different from those under which their progenitors live 

 for centuries, high up on the slopes of the Himalaya, where for nearly 

 half of the year they are enveloped in snow, and where from the 

 middle of March to the middle of June there is considerable dryness 

 in most of the localities covered by Deodar forests ; and from the 

 middle of June to the end of September there is a cloudy atmosphere 

 and almost continual rain. These variations in the season recur wich 

 tolerable constancy year after year ; whereas in Great Britain in no 

 two consecutive years are the seasons precisely alike ; often they are 

 very different. 



Nevertheless the Deodar should not be disparaged as an ornamental 

 tree for the park and lawn, especially in those localities where good 

 specimens are to be seen retaining a healthy aspect, or at least 

 showing no signs of decay, of which many such are growing in 

 various parts of England, in Wales, and in Ireland generally. Even 

 in the colder climate of Scotland, Dunn's Census in the Conifer 

 Conference Eeport of the Koyal Horticultural Society shows that, 

 although of slower growth, the Deodar thrives more or less satisfactorily 

 in many places, especially in the more humid climate of Perthshire 

 and the south-western counties. To secure good park and lawn 

 specimens, spots sheltered from the east and north-east winds should 

 be selected, and ample space should be allowed for the expansion 

 of the lowermost branches ; these in some of the oldest trees in 

 England have attained a length of 25 to 30 feet, but are usually 

 less in fast-growing trees. The rate of growth of the leader shoot in 

 Great Britain ranges in different localities from 12 to 21 inches. 



There is a beautiful avenue of Deodars in the grounds of 

 Lord Poltimore, near Exeter, which was planted in 1851 or 1852 ; 

 this avenue is 180 yards in length, and consists of twenty trees on each 

 side, their average height being at the present time (1900) nearly 

 70 feet. There is another fine avenue of somewhat greater extent at 

 Killerton, the seat of Sir C. T. Dyke-Acland, of which the variability 

 in habit of some of the trees composing it is a remarkable feature. 



