CEDRONEI.LA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



483 



trees I have seen are about 30 ft. high. 

 The tree is chiefly noteworthy or the 

 large pinnate leaves it bears. It has small 

 yellowish flowers arranged in great num- 

 bers in pendent clusters said to be agree- 



Catananche coerulea. 



ably scented. It promises to be a grace- 

 ful lawn tree, but has not been long enough 

 in the country yet to speak with certainty 

 of its hardiness, although we see it flourish- 

 ing in unlikely places. W. J. B. 



CEDRONELLA (Balm of Gilead] is a 

 distinct half-bushy herb of the Sage order, 

 C. triphylla having leaves with a pun- 

 gent but grateful odour, in our coun- 

 try 2^ to 4 ft. high, varying much 

 according to soil, and not quite hardy, 

 but living out-of-doors most winters if in 

 dry free soil and planted against walls. 

 A few plants against a wall are worth 

 having where curious plants are cared for, 

 though the flowers are not showy. Easily 

 raised from seed. 



CEDRUS (Cedar). Noble trees of the 

 mountains of Asia Minor and India, some 

 hardy, and often planted on lawns and 

 within sight of the flowers. The India 

 Cedar (Deodar) is really a tender tree, and 

 though it may seem to promise well in 

 sea-shore and favoured districts, planters 

 should not forget that it is to the Cedars 

 of the northern mountains they must look 

 the Lebanon and Atlas Cedars, which 

 have been proved so hardy, and so well 

 fitted for our country. No finer things 

 can be within view of the flower garden, 

 but they should never be planted near 

 the house, or their great branches will 

 darken it,- and in small flower gardens 

 they are sure to be in the way. 



In books and catalogues a form called 

 C. Atlantica is considered distinct enough 

 to merit a separate name, but having 

 seen the trees on their native moun- 

 tains, I think the Atlas Cedar is the 

 same species as the Lebanon Cedar (C. 

 Lebant). There are varieties of each in 

 catalogues, rarely so valuable as the wild 

 tree, except the glaucous or silvery forms, 

 which are worth planting. The Deodar 

 (C. Deodari} is distinct from the N. 

 African Cedars, and differs so also in its 

 tenderness and unfitness for our country 

 generally. 



The Cedars though hardy in our country 

 are nevertheless the victims of storm and 

 snow to an often painful but partly need- 

 less extent owing to the nearly universal 

 " specimen " way of planting these trees. 

 The pinetum is not only a mistake from an 

 artistic point of view, with its stuck-about 

 trees, but it also is so in the exposure 

 of the trees to all the storms and ac- 

 cidents of weather, including heavy snow- 

 falls. Naturally, pines often grow to- 

 gether and shelter each other, and where 

 this is so, great falls of snow do not harm 

 them to the same degree. The lower 

 boughs fall off in due time, as is their 

 nature, the tree often showing a bare, mast- 

 like stem beneath its crown of leaves. 

 Clearly, when we isolate any tree in the 

 open, and induce a tree which natur- 

 ally grows upright in a great mountain 

 forest to throw its limbs out in all direc- 

 tions, we expose it to an unfair test ; 

 hence the Cedars of which we in England 

 are so proud are often swept down in 

 numbers by heavy gales and snowfalls. 

 The idea that every choice tree in our 

 pleasure grounds should be set out by 

 itself like an electric lamp-post is deeply 

 impressed in the gardening mind, and we 

 have to pay dearly for it. Even where 

 the Cedars are grouped great storms may 



Cedar of Lebanon. 



do harm, but nothing like what happens to 

 the isolated trees. Think of the weight 

 that a Cedar of Lebanon, with its great 

 spreading arms, would have to carry in a 

 snowstorm, and how much more able to 

 I I 2 



