470 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



as we have seen these are not distinguishable as they get older. At Glasnevin there 

 is a remarkable tree about forty years old, of which the stem is erect for about 25 feet, 

 and beyond this bends over almost horizontally, extending laterally outwards for 

 almost 12 feet; and Elwes saw one of very slender and pendulous habit at Angers 

 in France. 



Distribution 



This cedar occurs in Algeria and Morocco. In the latter country its distribution 

 is still scarcely known, though it was in Morocco that the Atlas cedar was first 

 discovered. Philip Barker Webb visited^ Tangiers and Tetuan in the spring of 1827, 

 and from a native received branches of cedar which had been collected in the im- 

 penetrable mountains of the province of El Rif, where there were said to be vast 

 forests. Webb's specimens are preserved in the museum at Florence, where I saw 

 them in December 1906. His discovery was published in an article* by De Candolle 

 in 1837. Dr. Trabut" states that the tree occurs in the mountains behind Tetuan ; 

 and it is supposed * to exist to the south-east of Fez, where the traveller Rohlfs states 

 that he saw larch growing. 



In Algeria the cedar' forms a considerable number of isolated forests, none of 

 them of great extent, at altitudes between 4000 and 6900 feet. The tree appears to 

 be indifferent to soil, as it grows both on limestone and on sandstone formations. 

 No meteorological observations have been regularly taken in the cedar forests ; but 

 in general, where the tree flourishes, snow lies for several months during winter, the 

 temperature descending to 5 Fahn, and frost prevailing until May. In summer 

 the weather is dry with moderate temperatures. 



In the following detailed account I have supplemented my own observations by 

 consulting both the special pamphlet * concerning the cedar, published by order of 

 Governor-General Cambon, and M. Lefebvre's excellent book^ on the forests of 

 Algeria. 



The chief forests are those in the vicinity of Ouarsenis, Tdniet-el-Haad, and 

 Blida, and in the Djurdjura range in the province of Algiers ; and those on Mt. Babor, 

 in the Miadid mountains south of Sdtif, and in the Aures and Belezma mountains 

 near Batna. 



The forest* of Ouarsenis, the most westerly in Algeria, lies in the mountains 

 south of Orldansville. Here the cedar, mostly in mixture with Qtiercus Ilex, only 

 covers an area of 250 acres. The forest near Blida, which is often visited by tourists, 

 as it lies near the railway not far from Algiers, is 1 700 acres in extent, and consists 

 of cedars either growing pure or in mixture with the evergreen oak ; and it is, gener- 

 ally speaking, in a poor condition. In the Djurdjura range, extending in an inter- 

 rupted band on both slopes for nearly 40 miles, are the remains of an ancient forest, 

 most of the trees either growing singly or in small groups on rocks and precipices, 



' Gay, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, iiL 39 (1856). * Bibliothique UniverselU de Cenive, 1837, pp. 439, 440. 



Les Zotus Botanigtus de PAlgMe, 7 {1888). * Lefebvre, JUs Fortts de Cidre, i (1894). 



A fine picture of a forest in Algeria is given in Garden and Forest, viii. 335, f. 47 {1895). 



Les Fortts de Cidre (Alger-Mustapha, 1894). "> Les Forlts de PAlgMe, pp. 406-421 (Alger-Mustapha, 1900). 



Hutchison, Trans. R. Scot. Ard. Soc. xiii. 21 1, states, but does not give his authority, that cedars were cut here, the 

 diameter of which was so great, that it was necessary to join two saw-blades, each 6^ feet long, in order to fell the trees. 



