CONIFERS 149 



platforms of foliage 'are spread out for every one to enjoy. It 

 also has very interesting cones. We have absolutely nothing like 

 it growing wild in America. 



Of all the foreign conifers the cedar of Lebanon is the 

 most conspicuous in England, but it is also the most thor- 

 oughly at home. Technically, this is not true, because it 

 does not "self-sow," but humanly speaking it fits the land- 

 scape to perfection. It never has the stern or tragic look of 

 our picturesque conifers, eloquent of a thousand battles lost and 

 won. The mellowness of old England has descended upon it like 

 a benediction. 



But never has a grander personality made a poorer start in 

 life. A young cedar of Lebanon grows very slowly and has little 

 beauty. At the time when other conifers are symmetrical and 

 graceful it is a rough, tousled mass of harsh foliage having the text- 

 ure of the larch. But in old age and at a distance the foliage- 

 effect becomes wonderfully soft and the whole tree assumes a pro- 

 phetic appearance, so that one is transported as if by magic to 

 Old Testament times. 



Unfortunately the cedar of Lebanon is generally a failure in 

 America, especially north of New York. But Professor Sargent 

 is doing a splendid work in sending explorers for the hardiest 

 forms of the most important trees, and the Arnold Arboretum has 

 a stock of Cedrus Libani raised from seeds found in the northern- 

 most mountains of the Taurus range and at the highest altitude 

 where this cedar grows. 



But even if Professor Sargent's form of the cedar of Lebanon 

 should prove disappointing there is another cedar which is 

 certainly hardier than the common stock and in old age it cannot 

 be distinguished from the cedar of Lebanon. This is the Mount 



