47 2 CEDRUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CEDRUS. 



A few plants against a wall are worth 

 having where curious plants are cared for, 

 but 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 



Cedrela sinensis. 



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. 

 Lebani). 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 

 needless extent ow- 

 ing to the nearly 

 universal "speci- 

 men " way of plant- 

 ing these trees. The 

 pinetum is not only a 

 mistake from an ar- 

 tistic 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 

 snowfalls. 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 be- 

 neath its crown of 

 leaves. Clearly, when 

 we isolate any tree 

 in the open, and in- 

 duce a tree which 



naturally grows upright in a great moun- 

 tain forest to throw its limbs out in all 

 directions, 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 naturally grown and 

 grouped very exceptional falls may do 



