Cedrus 47p 



in the middle lOO scales, with 90 good and 1 10 bad seeds ; in the lower part 94 

 scales, with 188 bad seeds the whole cone, therefore, giving 219 scales, with 438 

 seeds, of which 90 were good. 



Cultivation 



The best account we have of the introduction of the deodar is given by 

 Ravenscroft, who states that the Hon. Leslie Melville sent seeds ^ in 1831 which 

 were sown at Melville in Fifeshire, at Dropmore, and elsewhere. 



Lord H. Bentinck sent some to Welbeck in 1832, but it was not until 1841 that 

 the Right Honourable T, F. Kennedy, then at the head of the Woods and Forests, 

 took steps to procure seed in large quantities from the Himalayas. His proceedings 

 are described at great length in the Thirty-first Report of the Commissioners of 

 Woods, pp. 168-172, and pp. 440-454 (1853), and further in the Thirty-fourth Report 

 (1856), pp. 87, 88, and pp. 120-122. From this it appears that 60,000 seedlings were 

 distributed in the spring of 1856 amongst the New, Dean, and Delamere forests, 

 and a further 40,000 were sent out in the following autumn, 



I am indebted to Mr. E. Stafford Howard, C.B., for information as to the 

 results of these experiments as given in letters from the Hon. Gerald Lascelles and 

 the late Mr. P. Baylis. The former says : " I have made search for any records of 

 the planting of the deodars, but can find nothing worthy of quotation. It is a fact that 

 it was very largely planted here, as we can see for ourselves, more, however, as an 

 avenue or ornamental tree than, strictly speaking, for timber. Large quantities were 

 raised in the nursery at Rhinefield, which at that time was managed by one Nelson, 

 who in a small book speaks of the very large experience he has had in raising and 

 transplanting deodars. The tree is, however, a failure by reason of the way in 

 which it suddenly dies off, unaccountably, when it is about forty or fifty years old. 

 There are some notable successes, such as the grove at Boldrewood ^ and others, but 

 I must have cut hundreds which had died off suddenly." 



Mr. Baylis wrote on 8th May 1905 : "I cannot give much definite information 

 on the subject, though Crown Keeper Smith remembers some deodars being planted 

 about 1857 along the sides of the rides in the High Meadow estate; but large 

 numbers of these have perished, and there are no very fine trees among those that 

 are left. A ride along the top of the Churchill enclosure was also planted about the 

 same time with similar trees ; but many of these also have died, and I cannot say 

 that any of them have thriven well, though one tree has occasionally borne cones. 

 I think that the climate here is too cold and damp for them to thrive, and that they 

 cannot stand the damp cold of our winters in the Forest, though on the slopes of the 

 Malvern hills they flourish fairly well." 



This liability of the deodar to die after attaining considerable size has been 

 often noticed, and, so far as I have observed, is most common on soils which are 

 poor in lime. 



' A tree raised from these seeds was planted near the Director's Office at Kew, and had attained a height of 32 feet in 

 1864. It became diseased and was removed in 1888. Cf. Kew Hand List of Coni/era, xiv. (1903). 

 ' The best deodar at Boldrewood is now 64 feet high. 



