322 LONDON PARKS <^ GARDENS 



report of the Garden seven years later, it was said to be 

 in a "dying condition." At the time the new Manage- 

 ment Committee came into office, that one was quite 

 dead. They left the tree standing until the fungi on it 

 became a danger to the rest of the trees. in the Garden, 

 when most reluctantly it was felled in March 1904, all 

 the sound parts of the timber being carefully preserved. 

 Miller gives a good account of them in his time. " The 

 four trees," he writes, " (which as I have been credibly 

 informed) were planted there in the year 1683, and at 

 that time were not above three feet high ; two of which 

 Trees are at this time (viz. 1757) upwards of eleven 

 feet and a Half in girt, at two Feet above ground, and 

 thereby afford a goodly shade in the hotest Season of the 

 Year." He goes on to point out that they were planted 

 so near the pond, which was bricked up to within two 

 feet of them, that the roots could not spread on one 

 side. Whether the water was good for them he is not 

 sure, but feels certain it was injurious to cramp the 

 roots. The two specimens nearest the green-house had 

 had some of their branches lopped off, to prevent their 

 shading the grass, and suffered in consequence. Though 

 one remained for nearly 150 years after Miller gave these 

 measurements, it was only 13 feet round the trunk 

 at the base when it was felled, and was so completely 

 rotten it must soon have fallen. Miller records that 

 three of the trees began producing cones about 1732, 

 and that in his time the seeds ripened, and germinated 

 freely, so it is probable that many plants in England are 

 descendants of the Chelsea trees. That these were 

 actually the first to be grown in England there is not 

 much doubt. Evelyn regrets in his " Sylva " the absence 

 of the cedars in England. The only trees which have 



