EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



231 



the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, 

 and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ; and 

 his top was among the thick boughs. His boughs were mul- 

 tiplied, and his branches became long. The fir trees were 

 not like his boughs, nor the chestnut trees like his branches, 

 nor any tree in the garden of God like unto him in beauty."* 



In England, the Cedar of Lebanon appears to have become 

 quite naturalized. There it is considered by far the most 

 ornamental of all the Pine tribe, — possessing an air of dig- 

 nity and grandeur when full grown, beyond any other tree. 

 To attain the fullest beauty of development, it should always 

 stand alone, so that its far-spreading horizontal branches can 

 have full room to stretch out and expand themselves on 

 every side. Loudon in his Arboretum, gives a representa- 

 tion of a suberb specimen now growing at Syon House, the 

 seat of the Duke of Northumberland, which is 72 feet high, 

 24 in circumference, and covers an area, with its huge de- 

 pending branches, of 117 feet. There are a number of other 

 Cedars in England almost equal to this in grandeur. Sir T. 

 D. Lauder gives an account of one at Whitton, which blew 

 down in 1779 : it then measured 70 feet in height, 16 feet in 

 circumference, and covered an area of 100 feet in diameter. 

 To show the rapidity of the growth of this tree, he quotes 

 three Cedars of Lebanon, which were planted at Hopetoun 

 House, Scotland, in the year 1748. The measurement is the 

 circumference of the trunks, and shows the rapid increase 

 after they have attained a large size. 



First Cedar, 

 Second do. 

 Third do. 



Increase in 

 32 years. 



A Chestnut measured at the same periods, only increased 2 



* Ezekiel, xxxi. 



