108 SYLVA BRITANNICA. 



the confidant of whispered plans of future greatness, 

 or visionary happiness, it is to be hoped it will never 

 again listen to the schemes of guilty ambition, or the 

 sighs of fruitless remorse. 



THE CEDARS IN THE APOTHECARIES 

 GARDEN, CHELSEA. 



These trees were planted, according to Dr. 

 Hunter, in his notes to Evelyn's Sylva, in 1683. 

 In 1774 they had attained a circumference of twelve 

 feet and a half, at two feet from the ground, while 

 their branches extended over a circular space forty 

 feet in diameter. Seven and twenty years after- 

 wards the trunk of the largest one had increased 

 more than half a foot in circumference ; this shows 

 the quickness of its growth in proportion to that of 

 the Oak, which, in the same period, would probably 

 not have made half that progress. Dr. Hunter 

 speaks of the branches hanging down nearly to the 

 ground, and affording thereby " a goodly shade in 

 the hottest season of the year." At present, how- 

 ever, these pendent branches are so for " curtailed 

 of their fair proportions" that they would afford no 

 more shade than might be desired when the sun is 

 just entering the vernal solstice; and indeed they 

 have of late years altogether drooped and languished, 



