CEDAR OP LEBANON. 531 



when the weight of its timber was found to be upwards 

 of thirteen tons. In Scotland its introduction did not take 

 place till a.d. 1740, when some plants were brought by 

 the then Duke of Argyle to Hopeton-House, where three 

 of the trees there planted are still in a flourishing state. 



After the Cedar had been for some time introduced, and, 

 contrary to the expectation of those who remembered only 

 the country, and not the elevated situation whence it came, 

 was found to be perfectly hardy and unaffected by our 

 climate or the severity of our winters, it was, to a limited 

 extent, cultivated for its ornamental properties ; and there 

 are few country seats of any note, in Britain, that can- 

 not boast of specimens of this noble tree. We regret, 

 however, that few attempts have been made to grow the 

 Cedar for its timber, or to test it as a profitable tree to 

 the planter, nor have sufficient experiments been instituted 

 to ascertain the highest altitude at which it will thrive, 

 or compete in growth with other coniferous species. From 

 the height at which it is found to flourish upon its native 

 mountains, and the degree and length of cold to which it is 

 there subjected for several months in the year, there can be 

 little doubt but that it would be found scarcely inferior, in 

 hardihood of constitution, to the larch, and might be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated, either in masses by itself, or mixed with 

 that tree, in those mountainous districts where the larch 

 grows with the greatest vigour and produces the finest 

 timber. To this, perhaps, may be objected the difficulty 

 of procuring plants in sufficient number, and their greater 

 cost as compared with those of the coniferous species 

 usually planted ; but this, we think, would be obviated 

 by the exertions which the nurserymen, under such cir- 

 cumstances, would make to procure seed, not only from 

 the old cone-bearing trees in Britain, but from those 



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