THE CONIFERS 



731 



TRUNK AND BARK OF LARCH. 



not readily owing to the erect attitude of 

 the cones. The empty cones remain 

 attached for several years, and, so accumu- 

 lating, add much to the desolate winter 

 aspect of the tree. 



THE CEDARS 



There are three of these, which are. 

 however, generaUy regarded as merely 

 geographical varieties. They are all 

 mountain trees, as their names indicate : 

 The Cedar of Lebanon, the Himalayan 

 Cedar (Deodar), the Mount Atlas Cedar. 



The Cedar of Lebanon, supreme type 

 of venerable majesty among trees, is 

 nevertheless of \-ery variable habit. In 

 its most characteristic form it throws out, 

 at a rather low level, huge lateral hmbs, 

 which support at their extremities broad, 

 platiorm-Uke areas of fohage, gi\ing to 

 the tree its distinctly terraced appearance. 

 In maturity the summit also is usually 

 broad and flat. 



The other Cedars, as they grow in this 

 country, are almost uniformly pyramidal 

 like the Firs. The chief distinction be- 

 tween them is in the fact that, whilst 

 the Deodar has its branches directed 



downwards, with their terminal shoots 

 l)endent, the Atlas Cedar has both its 

 branches and its shoots erect. 



The bark, a brownish grey in colour, 

 is deeply broken up and roughened. 

 The needles grow, similarly to those of 

 the Larch, singly on the young, long 

 shoots, in bristhng tufts elsewhere. These 

 tufts appear mostly on the sides and 

 upper face of the branch. Each needle 

 is hard and tough in texture, and is four- 

 sided. 



The flower clusters, which appear in the 

 autumn, are solitary and erect. Both 

 kinds are found on the same tree. The 

 ])ollen -bearing flower clusters are par- 

 ticularly consi)icuous as yellowish green 

 spikes, contrasting strongly with the ex- 

 panse of tufted dark green needles. The 

 cones are erect, oval in shape, flattened 

 or bluntly pointed at the top, and of a 

 particularly sohd structure. They re- 

 quire two or three years to reach maturity. 

 The seeds are liberated, as in the also 

 erect cone of the Sih'er Fir, by the shedding 

 of the cone-scales, from the top down- 

 wards, leaving on the tree only a bare 

 spike. The seeds are winged. 



TRUNK AND BARK OF CEDAK OF LEBANON. 



