CEDAR OF LEBANON 39 



evidently more successfully carried out than is the 

 case to-day. This was, no doubt, owing to the 

 purer atmosphere of the Metropolis at that time. 

 Gradually, though slowly, the Lebanon Cedar is 

 being ousted from the more crowded parts of the 

 Metropolis, as the world-famed specimens at Chelsea, 

 Fulham, and Lambeth bear testimony. Age may 

 have something to do with the dying condition of 

 these trees, but when it is remembered that equally 

 old specimens in this country, say at Holwood Park, 

 twelve miles from London, are in a healthy condition, 

 the probabilities are that atmospheric impurities have 

 much to do with the present condition of the City 

 trees. Further corroboration attaches to the fact 

 that young trees of the Lebanon Cedar do not now 

 succeed in a satisfactory way in the London area, 

 though further out, as at Kew and Richmond, their 

 growth is more reliable, though not what could be 

 desired. The date of introduction of the Lebanon 

 Cedar is uncertain, yet it is known that the tree 

 in Bretby Park, Derbyshire, was planted in 1676, 

 and those in Chelsea were growing in 1684, when 

 John Evelyn was ' surprised to see young trees 

 flourishing at Chelsea without protection.' Being in a 

 decayed state, two of these were cut down in 1771, 

 and the last of the four original specimens was felled in 

 1904. Miller in 1757 says of these trees : ' The four 

 trees which as I have been credibly informed were 

 planted there in the year 1683, and at that time were 

 not above 3 feet high ; two of which trees are at this 

 time upwards of eleven feet and a half in girth at two 

 feet above ground and thereby afford a goodly shade in 

 the hottest season of the year.' There is, however, 

 another claimant to be the oldest Cedar in London, 



