434 Conifer <z Cedrus. 



its native habitats, where, by-the-by, it is gradually becoming 

 very rare. It has been found on Mounts Lebanon, Taurus and 

 Aman. There is a diminutive form called nana, and the 

 variety argentea has silvery foliage. 



2. G. Atldntica, syn. (7. Africana and G. argentea. African 

 or Silver Cedar. It is difficult to find distinctive characters for 

 this and the foregoing, but the main difference lies in the 

 foliage, which in this is shorter, usually less than an inch in 

 length, and of a glaucous green or silvery hue. It is a large 

 tree, from 80 to 120 feet high, of more erect pyramidal habit 

 than that commonly assumed by the Lebanon Cedar in this 

 country, rarely producing thick branches like the latter. It 

 forms almost exclusively the arborescent vegetation of the 

 upper plateaus of the Atlas mountains. It has been stated by 

 M. Jamin that this and the foregoing are associated at Fougour, 

 and that the Silver Cedar ripens its cones earlier than 

 G. Libani. But this will be accepted with considerable doubt 

 when we remember that the cones are two or three years 

 coming to maturity, and that the same tree does not produce 

 cones every season. 



3. G. Deodara. Deodar or Indian Cedar. A pyramidal tree 

 when young, with dense slender drooping branches thickly 

 clothed with glaucous green leaves. In the young stage the 

 Deodar is readily distinguished by the foregoing characters 

 added to the longer leaves ; but according as the tree becomes 

 older, these distinctions are less apparent, though perhaps 

 never entirely obliterated. The cone of this form is said 

 to shed its scales as soon as mature. This is undoubtedly one 

 of the most elegant and graceful members of this beautiful 

 order, and is now planted by hundreds of thousands. There are 

 two or three rather striking varieties. (7. D. robusta has coarser 

 larger leaves and thicker branches ; (7. D. crassifolia has short 

 thick rigid foliage ; and G. D. viridis or tenuifolia is of slender 

 habit, with bright green foliage. This species is a native of 

 the mountains of North India, where it forms vast forests up to 

 an elevation of 12,000 feet. It attains a height of 100 to 150 

 feet, with a girth of 20 to 30 feet. It was introduced into 

 England in 1822. 



Cunninghamia Sinensis, the only known species of its 

 genus, is a lofty evergreen tree with sessile lanceolate-acumi- 

 nate coriaceous leaves, somewhat in the way of an Araucaria. 

 Cones rather small, ovate, remarkable in having small almost 



