CEDAR OF LEBANON 41 



mens of the timber of one of the original Chelsea trees, 

 which I had the opportunity of examining in 1918, 

 were of excellent quality. 



In a private park on the South side of London 

 there once were several goodly specimens of the 

 Lebanon Cedar. But an evil day came when the 

 grounds were handed over to the surveyor and builder, 

 both of whom said that the Cedars were very precious, 

 and would make numbers of cedar pencils, and so 

 realise a large amount of money. The trees were 

 felled and sawn into logs, and a merchant asked to 

 view them with the idea of purchase. The dealer 

 came, but he did not buy. On the contrary, he said : 

 * Foolish man, you have destroyed these beautiful 

 trees, and now they are of no use except to burn. 

 These are not the Cedar trees of which pencils are 

 made, and the wood is good for nothing else. These 

 trees were worth a hundred guineas each for park 

 embellishment as they stood, and now they are hardly 

 worth carting away.' 



On his arrival at Cadogan Pier, at the River Pageant 

 in 1919, His Majesty the King was presented by Mr. 

 Reginald Blunt, the Chelsea historian, with a small 

 box made from the last of the four famous Cedar 

 trees planted in 1683 in the Apothecaries' Physic 

 Garden, Chelsea. The box contained two Chelsea 

 tokens, with a view of the Royal Hospital, and one 

 of the rare bronze passes issued by order of King 

 George II in 1737, for permission to use the King's 

 private road at Chelsea. This road is the King's 

 Road of to-day. 



The cones of this Cedar, which are borne in plenty 

 on old trees, should be collected in early spring, 

 and the seeds removed and sown in April. The 



