31G HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 



not quite a thousand years, we are not disposed to 

 quarrel with the conclusion. Its former use in the 

 construction of the English long-bow is now obsolete, 

 and so too has almost died out the taste for growing' 

 this tree to torture into grotesque shapes. Still, as a 

 picturesque tree in woodland and home scenery, and 

 even as an attendant upon the parish church, we 

 should like to see the yew more extensively grown. 

 It is also a most useful tree for close hedges and 

 blinds in the garden, as it will bear being clipped 

 within due bounds with a great amount of patience. 



The Cedar {Cedras Libani), which was probably 

 introduced to this country towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century, has yet made such progress as to 

 rival in size and importance many of our more stately 

 native timber trees of far greater age. 



Amongst the more stately examples of this tree, 

 we may mention those at the Chelsea Botanical 

 Garden. There are some fine groups in Oakley Park, 

 Cirencester, growing on almost a bare rock of the 

 Great or Bath Oolite, and in the bleak Cotteswold 

 country, attaining the circumference of from 10 to 12 

 feet, at three feet from the ground. Long may the 

 cedar be cultivated for the size and beauty to which 

 it can attain, in which, perhaps, it may yet be 

 excelled by the Ceclrus deodara, not many years since 

 introduced from the Himalayas. We rejoice. to see 

 such noble specimens of vegetation grown, independent 

 of profit, which, indeed, is scarcely needed by a princely 

 possessor of a fine estate handed down, perhaps, from 

 generation to generation, in which each tree may 

 have a history of its own. 



The Spruce-Fir (Abies excelsa) is an elegant tree 

 in composition, and grows well on the thinnest and 



