THE CEDARS. 131 



slender tree, with short branches and thin foliage, very unlike the 

 Tamarac of the eastern States ; the leaves are long and more slender 

 than in any other species. It grows scattered along the banks of 

 streams rising to the height of 150 feet, with a diameter of from 

 2 to 3 feet. The foliage is light and feathery, and the cones longer 

 than those of L. microcardia."* It is a native of California and Oregon, 



III.— OEDEUS (Miller). The Cedar. 



Although, the Cedars are among the most majestic trees in Nature, 

 and also among the most distinctly defined as regards their port 

 and aspect, the rank of a separate genus has been denied to them 

 by many eminent Botanists, as will be seen in our next Synoptic 

 Table. When the organs of fructification alone are considered, it is 

 difficult to find in the Cedars any clearly distinctive characters 

 separating them from Abies or Larix; but, as in the case of the 

 latter, they have a vegetation and habit so strikingly peculiar to 

 themselves, that in a horticultural, that is to say, in a practical point 

 of view, their claim to generic rank is fully established.t Besides 

 their noble trunks furnished with wide spreading branches, which, in 

 their maturity attain timber-like dimensions, and in which they differ 

 from every other Coniferous tree growing in Britain, except the 

 common Yew; the Cedars possess the following obvious characters : 



The leaves, which are evergreen, are sub-quadrangular, or some- 

 what four-sided and compressed, stiff, sharp-pointed, fasciculated 

 or in bundles, as in the Larches, but in the young growth 

 frequently scattered as in the Spruce Firs. 



The cones are erect, very obtuse both at the base and apex, 

 ovate, or spheroidal in form, with the scales broad and truncated, 

 coriaceous in texture, and very closely pressed against each other 

 in an oblique spiral direction. They attain maturity in two and 

 three years. 



The geographical distribution of the Cedars is remarkable ; they 

 are confined to three separate regions in the great mountain chains 

 that cross the eastern continent between latitude 28° and 35° N., 



* Pacific Mailway Report, p. 60. 



t In Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum, vol. III., pars. 1, p. 439, the Cedars 

 are constituted a separate genus. 



