45 8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



the forest as an open one, the trees standing isolated and attaining about 130 feet in 

 height and 10 feet in girth, and none of a larger size were noticed. Haussknecht 

 found the cedar in the Berytdagh in Cataonia ; Heldreich collected it in the Davros 

 Dagh in Pisidia ; and two or three other localities, where the tree is apparently 

 neither abundant nor remarkable for size, are mentioned by Boissier. 



I saw the cedar in the Ak Dagh, on the road between Makri and Cassaba, in 

 1874, where the trees were growing in open woods at about 5000 to 6000 feet 

 elevation, and were not anything like as large as those in the Lebanon. 



Introduction 



We have no certain evidence as to the earliest introduction of the cedar into 

 England; but Loudon, p. 2412, considers that Evelyn was most probably the 

 introducer of the tree, as he states in the third edition of the Sylva (p. 125), published 

 in 1679, that he had received seeds from Mount Libanus. 



It has been supposed that Dr. Uvedale got the seeds which were planted by 

 him at Enfield between 1665 and 1670 from Evelyn, who, however, does not mention 

 this in the second edition of the Sylva, published in 1670; and until this tree is dead 

 or cut down we shall not know its age for certain.* 



The oldest specimen "^ of cedar in the British Museum is in a volume of Herb. 

 Sloane, ix. fol. 90, the title-page of which bears the following inscription : " Plants 

 gathered about London about the year 1682 for my own (i.e. Sir Hans Sloane's) 

 collection." 



Sir Stephen Fox was credited by his descendant. Lord Holland, with having 

 introduced and planted the cedar at Farley, near Salisbury (cf. Loudon, p. 2413), 

 which was cut down in 1813, when it weighed over 13 tons. Quenby Hall, 

 Leicestershire, is also mentioned as having the oldest cedar in England, but this 

 rests on family tradition only, and the tree at Quenby in 1837 was only 47^ feet by 

 7 feet 9 inches in girth. 



In Country Life, May 2, 1903, the late Mr. C, J. Cornish gives an account of 

 a cedar at Childrey Rectory, near Wantage, which, " according to unbroken tradition," 

 was planted by Dr. Edward Pocock, who was chaplain to the Turkey Company at 

 Aleppo in 1629, and afterwards chaplain to the Embassy at Constantinople. He 

 returned home in 1641 and was appointed to the living of Childrey in 1642, In 1903 

 it was still growing vigorously and increasing rapidly in size, and measured 25 feet in 

 girth at five feet from the ground, and covered an area of about 1600 square yards. 

 Though it has suffered much from the loss of branches broken by the weight of 

 snow about twenty years ago it now presents a very handsome appearance as 

 shown by the photograph which is given on p. 567 of Country Life, No. 330. 



Lord Savile informs me that a cedar, which he remembers as being the tallest 

 that he ever saw, grew at Rufford Abbey. This is believed to have been planted 



' Boulger, in his biographical sketch of Uvedale iajoum. Bot. xxix. 13 (1891), gives some details of the Enfield cedar, 

 but has not been able to verify the statement that it dates from 1670. The Enfield cedar is figured in Card. Chron. xxxii. 31, 

 f. 12 (1902). Cf. also Card. Chron. viii. 505 (1890). 



* The statement in Card. Chron. ii. 194 (1887), that there is mention in Belon's works, which were published in 1533 

 and 1558, that the cedar of Lebanon existed in France before 1558 is erroneous; and it is probable that the tree was not 

 introduced into France till 1734. Cf. Loudon, p. 2414. 



