1058 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



Spec. Char,, Sj-c. Leaves tufted, perennial. Cones ovate, abrupt ; their scales 

 close-pressed. Crest of the anthers ovate, flat, erect. (Smith.) Cones 

 ovate, from 3 in. to o in. long, and from 2 in. to 2iin. broad. Seeds of an 

 irregular triangular form ; nearly i in. long, with a very broad membrana- 

 ceous wing. Cotyledons 6. A large, spreading evergreen, tree. Syria, on 

 Mount Lebanon ; and the North of Africa, on Mount Atlas. Height 50 ft. 

 to 80 ft. Litroduced before 1683. Flowers yellow ; May. Cones purplish 

 brown, ripening in the autumn of the third year, and remaining on the 

 tree for several years. 



Varieties. 



t C. L. 2 foliis argenteis. Leaves of a silvery hue both above and below. 

 There are very large tree.= of this variety at Whitton and Pain's Hill, 

 and a dwarf bushy one, remarkable for its silvery aspect, at the 

 Countess of Shaftesbury's villa (formerly the residence of Thomson 

 the poet), on the banks of the Thames at Richmond, of which there 

 is a portrait in Arb. Brit., 1st. edit., vol. viii. 



? C. i^. 3 nana. Very dwarf. A plant at Hendon Rectory, Middlesex, 

 10 or 12 years old, is only from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, making shoots 

 from 2 in. to 3 in. in a 3 ear. 



The leading shoot, in young trees, generally inclines to one side, but it be- 

 comes erect as the tree increases in height. The horizontal branches, or limbs, 

 when the tree is exposed on every side, are very large in proportion to the 

 trunk : they are disposed in distinct layers, or stages, and the distance to 

 which they extend diminishes as they approach the top ; thus forming a py- 

 ramidal head, broad in proportion to its height. The extremities of the lower 

 branches, in such trees, generally rest on the ground, bent down by their own 

 weight ; but they do not root into it. The summit, in young trees, is spiry ; 

 but in old trees it becomes broad and flattened. When the cedar of Lebanon 

 is drawn up among other trees, it pro- 

 duces a clean straight trunk, differing 

 only in appearance from that of the 

 larch in the colour of its bark. The wood 

 of the cedar is of a reddish white, light 

 and spongy, easily worked, but very 

 apt to shrink and warp, and by no means 

 durable. The tree, as an ornamental 

 object, is most magnificent ; uniting 

 the grand with the picturesque, in a 

 manner not equalled by any other tree 

 in Britain, either indigenous or intro- 

 duced. On a lawn, where the soil is good, the /situation sheltered, and the 

 space ample, it forms a gigantic pyramid, and confers dignity on the park and 

 mansion to which it belongs ; and it makes an avenue of unrivalled grandeur, 

 if the trees are so far apart as to allow their branches to extend on every side. 

 If planted in masses, it is, like every other species of the pine and fir tribe, 

 drawn up with a straight naked trunk, and scarcely differs in appearance from 

 the larch, except in being evei-green. This is exemplified at Kenwood, at 

 Claremont, and other places near London. On the other hand, where the 

 cedar is planted in masses, and a distance of 50 or 60 feet allowed between 

 each tree, nothing in the way of sylvan majesty can be more sublime than such 

 a forest of living pyramids. This is exemplified around the cedar tower at 

 Whitton, and on the cedar bank at Pepper Harrow. The cedar will grow in 

 every soil and situation suitable for the larch. We are not certain that it will 

 grow equally well with that tree at great elevations ; though we have little 

 doubt of it, provided it were planted in masses. In the neighbourhood of 

 London, it has certainly attained the largest size in deep sandy soil, as at 

 Syon, Whitton, and Pain's Hill ; but the sand at these places is not poor ; and 

 at ^Vhitton, where the tree has attained the greatest height and bulk, the 



1974. C. Libaui. 



