534 CONIFERiE. 



which Sir Joseph Banks had made out of the celebrated 

 Hillingdon Cedar, a tree mentioned by Gilpin, in his " Fo- 

 rest Scenery," and described by him as the finest English 

 specimen he had seen. Loudon also mentions the result 

 of several experiments made with a portion of the wood 

 in his possession, which proved it to be very inferior in 

 strength to that of the common English grown Scotch 

 pine. Of the appearance and texture of the wood grown 

 upon its native mountain, we have the remarks of Dr. 

 Pococke, already quoted, which certainly indicate nothing 

 remarkable or curious in its appearance. That it is, how- 

 ever, sometimes of a firmer texture and finer grain, appears 

 from what is said in the " Histoire du Cedre," of a piece of 

 Cedar wood brought from Mount Lebanon by Dr. Pariset, 

 in 1829, and which, when made into a piece of furniture, 

 presented a compact surface, agreeably veined and shaded, 

 and, upon the whole, handsome in appearance. As fuel 

 the Cedar burns quickly, with a lively flame, but without 

 emitting much heat, in which respect it is greatly inferior 

 to the wood of the beech or the oak : the bark also con- 

 tains tannin, but the astringent principle, according to 

 Chevreuil is, to that of the oak, only as 12*75 is to 

 19*75. Upon the whole, since the wood of the Cedar, 

 when grown at a low elevation in the plains of Britain, 

 appears to be of a quality much inferior to that of the 

 larch, and scarcely equal to that of the other evergreen 

 abietinte usually planted, it would not seem advisable to 

 substitute it for them, or to plant it on an extensive scale, 

 with a view to profit ; and as to its adaptation for more 

 elevated districts, or the improvement its timber might 

 undergo in such localites, we have no data whereon to 

 form an opinion, as no attempts, we regret, have yet been 

 made to cultivate it in such situations. 



