1440 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



and in the rocky hills of the Tennessee valley grows in mixture with ash, maple, and 

 oak, and in the prairies of Alabama, with magnolia, lime, and hickory. 



It grows best on a light loamy soil containing lime, and does not come to 

 perfection on clay or sand. It reproduces itself freely from seed, which it bears every 

 year, the berries being a favourite food of many birds, which scatter it widely. The 

 seedlings endure shade, and spread over abandoned farms in New England and in 

 the south ; but Mohr says that its habit of reproducing itself from suckers seems to 

 have weakened the vitality of the seed, and that under the best conditions only 15 to 

 25 per cent of the seed will germinate. 



Excellent illustrations are given in Mohr's paper showing the botanical details 

 and the structure of the wood, with a map giving the distribution of both this species 

 andy. barbadensis. 



Cultivation 



Though described by Parkinson in 1640, and introduced to England before 

 1664 by Evelyn,* it has never become an abundant tree in England ; and was much 

 more generally planted a century ago than it is now. In most old places it may be 

 found in a more or less damaged condition, for though a long-lived tree it is often 

 broken by wind and snow ; and it varies so much from seed that it is often mistaken 

 for other species. As, however, it is very hardy, and will grow in almost any kind 

 of dry and well-drained soil, but only to a large size where this is also deep and 

 fertile, it should be planted more generally, and in some parts of the south of 

 England might be tried for the sake of its very valuable timber. It is easily raised 

 from seed,^ and grows faster than the common juniper, but it does not produce seed 

 freely in most places ; and I am unable to say what part of America seed suitable for 

 English planting is most likely to come from. Though in the northern United 

 States and Canada it is usually a small and scrubby tree as compared with the large 

 size it attains in the south, I can find no evidence that under cultivation this difference 

 is reproduced. Prof. N. E. Hansen of the South Dakota Agricultural College, how- 

 ever, states, in a paper ^ on the " Breeding of Cold- Resistant Fruits," that "The 

 red cedar was formerly brought in large quantities from Tennessee, which is well 

 to the south ; northern nurserymen have learned that they must cultivate only the 

 northern form of the red cedar to avoid total failure." 



It seems to require fairly close planting, as well as pruning, in order to get a 

 clean trunk ; but I do not know to what extent it is capable of bearing shade 

 in this climate. Under favourable conditions in America the growth at first is very 

 rapid, trees only twelve years old having attained in Alabama 25 ft. high and i ft. 

 in diameter. Up to from seventy to one hundred and twenty years the increase 

 continues good, but after that age the trees often begin to decay, though they may 

 live for several centuries, and attain a diameter at the butt of 2 to 4 ft. 



' Aiton, Hort. Kew. v, 414 {1813). 



2 Sargent, in Garden and Forest, viii. 61 (1895) says that the seeds should be gathered in autumn and then moistened 

 and mixed with sand, and kept in a pit till the following autumn, or the second spring, when they will produce strong plants, 

 6 to 8 in. high at the end of their second season and ready for transplanting. 



3 Refort of Conference on Genetics (Roy. Hort. Soc), 1906, p. 402. 



