Ced 



rus 



459 



by Charles II., who used to visit and stay at Rufford, where his rooms are now 

 known as " the King's rooms." Its stump is now surrounded by iron railings and 

 labelled "Cedrus Libani, planted by King Charles II." 



Loudon considered that the cedars at Chelsea ^ mentioned by Sir Hans Sloane 

 in 1685 as then existing {Rays Letters, p. 176), but now dead, and those at 

 Chiswick House, which are still flourishing, were the oldest in England. But 

 I am informed by Mr. Challis, gardener to the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton 

 House, that "in the year 1874 a very large cedar was cut down there, whose 

 stem up to about 18 feet from the ground was nearly uniform in size, and then 

 divided into twelve distinct branches, each nearly equal in size to a good-sized tree, 

 some of them extending horizontally 70 feet from the trunk. The circumference of 

 the bole five feet from the ground was 36 feet, a transverse section measured when 

 down 1 1 feet 9 inches, and the number of concentric rings, after several careful 

 counts, some of the rings being somewhat indistinct, was 236. A section of this 

 stem was sent to the South Kensington Museum." 



If this is correct, and it seems to me that the exact statement of so experienced 

 a gardener as Mr. Challis cannot be questioned, the tree must have been introduced 

 in 1638, before Evelyn's time, and was not only the oldest but also the largest 

 cedar on record in England. I have taken great pains to verify this statement 

 by seeing the section mentioned ; but though careful search has been made in the 

 Records of the British Museum (Natural History), as well as at the Victoria and 

 Albert Museum at South Kensington, and in the letter books of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, this wonderful specimen cannot now be traced or discovered. 



Cultivation 



The seeds of the cedar, whether imported or home grown, should be sown 

 under glass in the spring ; for though they will germinate in the open air, their 

 growth is so slow for the first three or four years that much time and loss will be 

 saved by protecting them with a frame. If sown in pots they should be planted out 

 in a frame at a year old, as the roots soon become cramped and pot-bound, and the 

 young plants do not make good roots for some time if they have once been so 

 checked. At two or three years old they may be planted in rich soil about the 

 beginning of May when the buds are starting, and will require some years more in 

 the nursery before finally planting them out. 



The Lebanon cedar requires a warm, deep, well-drained soil to bring it to 

 perfection, and does not grow so well in the colder and moister parts of England. 

 When once established it will endure our most severe winters without much injury, 

 though it often suffers from heavy snowstorms, which break the branches. The 

 seedlings vary considerably in habit, in vigour, and in colour, and as they do not 

 bear pruning well when the branches become large, it is best to cut off the lower 

 ones when quite small, so as to encourage an upright growth. 



' The last of the cedars in the Physic Garden at Chelsea, which had been dead for some years, was removed in 1904. 

 In 1882 it was 60 feet high and 13 feet 9 inches in girth at 3 feet from the ground. Card. Chron. xxxv. pp. 185, 224 ('904)- 

 Cf. also ibid. xxvi. 336, f. 70 (1886), where a figure of the tree is given. 



Ill C 



