60 



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four inches apart. Should the weather be drj, it is advisable to give them shade and moisture until 

 they have taken root. After having been two years in the beds, they must be transferred to the 

 nursery, where they may remain until the place of their final destination be ready. Whilst the young 

 cedars are in the nursery, and indeed after having been planted out, many will have a tendency to droop, 

 probably in their leading shoot. As soon as this is perceived, an upright stake should be driven into 

 the ground, and the shoots tied to it with matting, to keep them upright. It may not be ajniss also, 

 in some instances, to lighten the head by cutting off the extremities of some few of the large branches. 

 When the trees have been finally transplanted however, they should be in general left to nature. Not 

 a knife nor a hatchet should be brought near the old part of the branches, for the lopping the thick 

 wood will not only retard their growth, but injure their beauty. The Cedar is extremely tardy in its . 

 increase of size, even under the most favourable circumstances, so that the p-rcatest caution ousjht to be 



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observed in the rearing it. The epithet of lofty, commonly given to the Cedar, is by no means appli- 

 cable, since from the accounts given of those which still remain on Mount Lebanon, they are not very 

 high, though their branches spread widely. The last-mentioned circumstance warrants the fine allusion of 

 the Psalmist, in describing a prosperous people. " They shall spread their branches (says he) like the 

 Cedar tree." Of the few trees of this species still standing on Lebanon, seven, we arc told by Billardiere, 

 are of amazing size. The trunk of the largest is nine feet in diameter. They are all preserved with 

 rehgious care, and on the day of the transfiguration, a solemn festival is celebrated on the mount, 

 called the Feast of Cedars. The memoirs of the Levant missionaries state that the Patriarch officiates 

 pontifieally on this devout occasion, and threatens with ecclesiastical punishment those who may presume 

 to diminish or hurt the Cedars that grow on the consecrated spot. 



The diuturnity of the Cedar we frequently find alluded to. The wood of this famous tree has been 

 supposed to preserve books much better than any other material; hence the expression " Cedro dlo-7zus" 

 was considered as one of the highest compliments that could be bestowed on a hterary performance. 



The wood was not liable to be corroded by insects, on which account it was much used in ancient 

 times for coffins, and chips of it were considered as destructive to moths and worms. It is recorded 

 that in the temple of Apollo, at Utica, was found Cedar wood nearly two thousand years old, and at 

 Saguntum in Spain, in an oratory consecrated to Diana, two hundred years before the destruction of 

 Troy, a beam was discovered which has since been removed to Zante.'' 



But in the relation of the properties assigned to this tree, I think with Professor Martyn there is 



much vulgar error and confusion, the Cedar of Lebanon'being often confounded with trees which belong 



to different ge?iera. ■ At least the accounts given by the ancients of the long duration of their Cedar, 



very ill accord with the species now under consideration, whose wood is no more than a very inferior 



kind of deal, with little or no smell, and of a soft texture, evidently of short duration. This appears 



by a table in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, made of the Hillingdon Cedar, one of the largest that 



ever grew in this country. The word Cednis seems in many cases to be ambiguously used by Greek 



and Latin authors, ' but appears in general much better to apply to the Cupressus lior'montalis of Miller, 



which I have no doubt is a distinct species from C. sempervirens of Linnaeus. Perhaps it may not be 



superfluous here to mention that the wood used for black-lead pencils is not Plmcs Cedriis hut Junlpems 

 Benmcdiana. . ' ' ■ ■ 



By whom the Cedar was first Introduced into England, I have not been able to ascertain. In the 

 Gentleman's Magazine for March l/^g. Sir John CuUum has taken great pains to setUe this point, and 

 concludes that we are very probably indebted to Mr. Evelyn for its introduction. ' 



Some of the most vigorous and beautiful in this country at present are growing at Pain's Plill, 

 Whitton, and Chiswick. They produce a prodigious number of cones annually. "^ ■ 



This species being so fully and accurately illustrated in Ehret's figures, published by Trew, I 

 thought it unnecessary to give a plate or botanical description of it at present. 



^Evelyns Sylva, 315. 



