CHAP. CXIII. CONI'FER.E. C'E V DRUS. 2403 



Thomson the poet), on the banks of the Thames at Richmond, of 

 which there is a portrait in our last Volume. It is singular that the 

 nurserymen have never taken the trouble to raise plants from the 

 seeds, or from scions, of this very beautiful variety, 

 t C. L. 3 ndna is a very dwarf variety, of which we have only seen one 

 plant at Hendon Rectory, Middlesex, which, 10 or 12 years old, 

 is only from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, making shoots from 2 in. to 3 in. in a 

 year. 



Other Varieties. At Pepper Harrow, in Surrey, the seat of Lord 



Viscount Middleton, there are a great many cedar trees, some of which 



are quite fastigiate in their habit of growth, resembling immense cypresses ; 



while others have the branches depressed at their insertion in the trunk, and 



their extremities pendulous like those of the hemlock spruce. Some are 



dwarf and bushy, and others very tall, with comparatively few branches ; the 



leaves of some are dark green, while those of others are quite glaucous. 



The cones are of very different sizes. These variations arise, no doubt, 



simply from the tendency of the cedar to sport when raised from seed ; as 



similar variations are always found, more or less, wherever the cedar has been 



planted in considerable quantities. In the Garden Lemonnier, at Versailles, 



is a cedar about 20ft. high, with a trunk 2ft. in circumference at the 



base. It is apparently very old, and has a knotty stunted appearance, like 



the gnarled branches of an aged oak. It has never produced seeds (Atm. 



<CHort. t xvi. p. 337), and is most probably only a variation. 



Description. A widely spreading tree, generally from 50 ft. to 80 ft. high ; 



and, when standing singly, covering a space with its branches, the diameter of 



which is often much greater than its height. The leading shoot, in young 



trees, generally inclines to one side, but it becomes erect, as the tree increases 



in height It is covered with a brownish 



bark, which becomes cracked as the tree 2267 



advances in age. 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 dis- 

 tance to which they extend diminishes 

 as they approach the top ; thus forming 

 a pyramidal 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 produces a clean straight trunk, 

 differing only in appearance from that of the larch in the colour of its bark ; 

 but having been long considered more as an ornamental than a useful tree, it 

 is seldom found planted in masses, or intermixed with other trees in planta- 

 tions. If a branch of the cedar is cut off, it is stated in Lambert's Pmi/ t that 

 " the part remaining in the trunk gradually loosens itself, and assumes a 

 round form resembling a potato ; and, if the bark covering it be struck smartly 

 with a hammer, the knot leaps out." This fact, Mr. Lambert states, was 

 communicated to him by Sir Joseph Banks ; but he adds that he had tried 

 the experiment himself. The branchlets are disposed in a flat fan-like 

 manner on the branches ; and, as they are numerous and thickly set with 

 leaves, single detached trees appear, at a little distance, a dense mass of 

 foliage. The leaves are straight, about 1 in. long, slender, nearly cylindrical, 

 tapering to a point, and are on short footstalks : they are generally* of a dark 

 grass green ; but, in the variety called the silver cedar, they have a beautiful 

 glaucous hue. The leaves, which remain two years on the branches, are at 



7Q 3 



