CEDRUS LIBANI. 419 



historic associations, have all combined to attract towards it a kind 

 of regard that is not felt for any other coniferous tree. As a tree 

 for the landscape and park, the Cedar of Lebanon may be said to 

 be almost indispensable, for it imparts a feature so peculiarly its own 

 that not even its near congeners, the Himalayan and the Mount 

 Atlas Cedars, should be substituted for it. It is perfectly hardy ; 

 it has passed through the severest winters -on record unscathed, 

 except a very few trees that were unfavourably located ; it thrives 

 in many kinds of soils, even in dry sandy ground usually considered 

 poor ; it is almost indifferent to situation and environment ; 

 proximity to water does not seem to affect it where the drainage 

 is free, as the roots do not penetrate deep into the soil but range 

 over a large area near the surface. 



If exposed to high winds the great bulk often attained by the 

 Cedar of Lebanon offers a resistance to their force greater than the root- 

 hold of the tree can withstand, and many large and noble specimens 

 have been overthrown and consequently destroyed by more than usually 

 violent gales. * When the period of decadence has set in, accidents 

 by wind become frequent, occurring even in places not more than 

 ordinarily exposed ; many Cedars, famous in their time, have disappeared 

 from this cause, f Large trees with long spreading branches occasionally 

 suffer breakage by heavy falls of snow. In the drier climate of 

 England, except the counties of Devon and Cornwall, the branches 

 generally increase in length at almost the same rate as the trunk 

 gains in height ; but in the more humid climate of Ireland, j Wales, 

 parts of Scotland, Devon and Cornwall ; and also in places where the 

 trees have been planted in groups, or in close proximity to each 

 other, or to other trees, the leader usually ascends faster than the 

 branches increase in length ; the trees have then the elongated 

 pyramidal outline of the Deodar and Mount Atlas Cedars. Under most 

 circumstances the rate of growth of the Cedar of Lebanon in Great 

 Britain compared with that of the Abietineae generally may be 

 considered slow. The increase in height during the first fifty years 

 scarcely exceeds a foot annually taking one year with another, and 

 this rate of growth diminishes with the increase of age till the leader 

 or leaders for plurality, or at least more than one, is the rule rather 



* Several grand specimens at Orton Hall, near Peterborough, were overthrown by a 

 disastrous gale which occurred on March 24th, 1895. On March 3rd, 1897, eleven line 

 Cedars, some of them almost equal in size to that figured, were uprooted in Goodwood 

 Park by a fierce gale which for several hours swept along the south coast as far as Cornwall, 

 and which overturned many others standing in proximity to the sea in Hants, Dorset and 

 Devon. 



t The great Cedar at Hendon, one of the first that was planted in this country, was 

 bloAvn down in 1779 ; its height was 70 feet, and the diameter of umbrage 100 feet. 



J At Carton in Co. Kildare, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, are some of the finest 

 Cedars in Ireland ; most of them have straight undivided trunks, and the tallest exceed 

 70 feet in height. These Cedars are a conspicuous feature of the domain. 



There is an imposing group of Cedars at Strathfieldsaye, in North Hants, "twelve 

 in number, the largest of which towers to a height of 120 feet; their tall cylindrical 

 stems are denuded of branches to a height of about 70 feet, and present more the 

 appearance of well-grown Larch stems than that of ordinary Cedars. - Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 XIX. ser. 3 (1896), p. 8. 



