2406 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



2272 



The Hammersmith Cedar. 



most remarkable tree was kindly presented to us by the proprietor, J. Gost- 



ling, Esq.; on a portion of which we made several experiments, which proved 



it to be very inferior in point of strength 



to the common English-grown Scotch 



pine, and the remainder we have had made 



into a table. The colour and the grain of 



the wood are precisely the same as those of 



a specimen accompanied by cones and leaves 



received by Mr. Lambert from Morocco. 



At St. Ann's Hill is a cedar planted by the 



Honourable Mrs. Fox, in 1794, which, h. 



1834, was 50 ft. high, diameter of the 



trunk 3 ft. 6 in., and of the head 72 ft. 



At Redleaf, near Penshurst, there are 



cedars which, in 1837, were 36ft. high, 

 and girted 4 ft. 6 in. at 3 ft. from the 

 ground. These were raised from seeds exactly 20 years before, by the pro- 

 prietor, W. Wells, Esq., who purchased the cone from which the seeds were 

 taken in a London seed-shop in 1816. Another cedar at Redleaf, after being 

 planted 27 years, when under 3ft. high, is 52ft. high, and 5 ft. 6 in. in circum- 

 ference at 3 ft. from the ground. In Scotland and Ireland, in sheltered situa- 

 tions, and on good soil, the growth of the cedar is found to be nearly as rapid 

 as that of the larch. When the leading shoot of the cedar is broken, it 

 does not form another, and ceases to grow in height. The cedar in the Jardin 

 des Plantes, which lost its leader at the commencement of the French revo- 

 lution, has not increased in height since; but its branches have extended 

 45ft. French (nearly 50ft. English) on each side, giving a diameter to the 

 head of nearly 100ft. 



The most remarkable cedars in point of age, near London, are those in 

 the Chelsea Botanic Garden, now in a state of rapid decay ; and of which 

 fig. 2270. is a portrait to the scale of 1 in. to 50 ft. There was till lately a 

 fine old tree at Hammersmith, in the garden of a house which was formerly 

 occupied by Bishop Atterbury, of which fig. 2272. is a portrait from an en- 

 graving by Strutt. There is a very old cedar at Enfield (fig. 2269.), by some 

 supposed to be older than the Chelsea cedars. 

 At Croome, in Worcestershire, there is a cedar 

 remarkable for its magnitude, and the naked- 

 ness of its branches, of which fig. 2271. is a 

 portrait reduced from a drawing kindly made 

 for us by Miss Radcliffe of Worcester. The 

 tallest cedar in the neighbourhood of London 

 is one at Kenwood, figured in our last Volume, 

 which is 95ft. high; and the handsomest is 

 one at Syon, also figured in our last Volume, 

 and of which fig. 2268. is a portrait reduced 

 to the same scale as the other figures of cedars 

 here given. In Scotland, the largest cedars 

 are at Hopetoun House, and in Dalkeith Park ; 

 and there is a very handsome one, comparatively young, on the estate of Gray, 

 in Forfarshire, of which fig. 2273. is a portrait, reduced from a drawing sent 

 to us by Mr. Robertson, gardener to Earl Gray, at Kinfauns Castle. The 

 largest cedars in Ireland are believed to be those at Castletown, the seat 

 of Colonel Conolly ; or at Mount Anville, the seat of Counsellor West. 



Geography. The cedar of Lebanon is generally supposed to grow no 

 where but on that mountain; but it was discovered, in 1832, on several 

 mountains of the same group, by N. Bove, ex-director of agriculture of Ibra- 

 ham Payha, at Cairo. In passing from Sakhlehe to Der-el-Khamer, on 

 the afternoon of October 11., M. Bove" passed through a valley, the right 

 side of which was bounded by a mountain, and on its summit some thou- 

 sands of cedars of Lebanon were growing, covered with catkins. " These 



2273 



The Gray Cedar. 



