CHAP. CXIII. 



CONIFER.*;. CE'DRUS. 



2405 



The Chelsea Cedars. 



The rate of growth of the cedar is generally considered slow ; but, under 

 favourable circumstances, it is at least as rapid as that of other resinous 

 trees. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, in his very able article on the cedar in 

 the Nouveau Du Hamel, compares the rate of growth of the tree in Eng- 

 land and France, by showing the increase in a given 2270 

 number of years of the trees at Chelsea, and of that 

 in the Jardin des Plantes. The trees in the Chelsea 

 Garden were planted in 1683, being then 3ft. high; 

 and, in 1766, two of them were upwards of 12ft. 6 in. 

 in girt at 2 ft. from the ground, and their branches 

 extended more than 20 ft. on every side ; which 

 branches, Miller adds, " though they were produced 

 12ft. or 14ft. above the surface, did, at every termi- 

 nation, hang very near the ground, and thereby afford 

 a goodly shade in the hottest season of the year." The cedar in the Jardin 

 des Plantes measured, in 1786, at the ground, 4ft. 6 in. French (about 5ft. 

 English) in circumference; in 1802, according to M. Dutour (Nouv. Diet. 

 d'Hist. Nat., iv. p. 449.), it was 7ft. 10 in. (nearly 8ft. 6 in.); and in 1812, 

 when it was 78 years old, it was 8 ft. 8 in. (9 ft. 4 in.) In 1834, according 

 to the Return Paper we received from M. Mirbel, the same tree, then exactly 

 100 years old, was 10 ft. 6 in. (11 ft. 4 in.) in circumference; and the largest 

 of the Chelsea cedars, in the same year, was nearly 15 ft. in circumference, 

 they being upwards of 150 years old. The rapid growth of the Chelsea 

 cedars during the first 83 years is accounted for by the circumstance of their 

 standing near a pond, into which their roots extended ; and, when this pond 

 was filled up (which it was a few years after 1766, when Miller measured 

 them), their growth was instantly checked ; and so much so, that, in 1793, 

 when measured by Sir Joseph Banks, the largest was only 12ft. 11^ in. in 

 circumference, having in- 2271 

 creased only 5^ in. in 30 

 years. The cedar in the 

 Jardin des Plantes, though 

 the most celebrated, is not 

 the largest in France : 

 another plant, brought 

 from England by Jussieu 

 at the same time, and 

 planted in the garden of 

 the Chateau de Montigny, 

 had a trunk, in 1832, when 

 measured by M. Murat, 

 nearly 1 7 ft. French ( 1 8 ft. 

 5 in. English) in circum- 

 ference at 4ft. from the 

 ground. It had lost its 

 leading shoot, and was only 

 a little higher than the tree 



in the Jardin des Plantes. The Croome Cedar 



The two largest cedars at 



Whitton, which, in 1837, were 105 years old from the seed (see p. 57.), 

 were upwards of 70 ft. high, with trunks 14 ft. 6 in. in circumference at 2 tt. 

 from the ground. The pinaster, Scotch pine, silver fir, and larch, at 

 Whitton, in the same soil and situation, had not made nearly so much timber; 

 though it is proper to state that these last kinds had rather less room than 

 the cedars. One of the largest of these cedars was blown down in the violent 

 storm of wind in November, 1836, The lower part of the trunk, after being 

 squared, measured nearly 4 ft. on the side ; and the annual growths were so 

 large, that 20 of them measured across 6i in. The largest of these annual 

 layers was no less than in., and the smallest exceeded in. A plank ot this 



7 Q 4 



