CONIFERS. THE CEDRUS, OR CEDAR. 
451 
twelve, and three o'clock, find then laid upon a 
hard uneven floor and thrashed to pieces. 
Where there is only a small quantity, the 
best and easiest way of getting at the seeds is 
by driving a piece of sharp iron through the. 
centre of the cone, an operation which is con- 
siderably facilitated by steeping them in water 
for a few days previously. The best time for 
sowing is the latter end of April, either in 
the open ground, or in flat pots or pans laid 
in a frame without much bottom heat. The 
soil in either case should be of a light and 
friable nature, such as will not bind together, 
and should be kept moderately and uniformly 
moist until the plants appear, which will be 
in about four weeks after sowing. In the 
beds or pans, the plants may remain for two 
years, when they should be planted out into 
rich loamy soil in the open ground, not adding 
manure at the time, but into such soil as had 
been well manured for some previous crop. 
The plan of keeping them continually in pots 
is ^ery bad, and is now being scouted in all 
the best nurseries. It is, however, to be 
remembered that, if the plants are not shifted 
at the end of every two years, they are fit 
only to be burned, the roots after that time 
becoming hard and fibreless. If treated in 
the open ground, as here recommended, the 
plants will reach the height of two feet in five 
years : those in pots, on the other hand, are 
eight years old before reaching this height. 
Plants two feet high are I*. 6d. each, and 
those four feet high are 5s. each. Such plants 
are quite large enough to be planted out where 
they are intended to remain. The plan 
adopted by the late Sir George Macpherson 
Grant, of Ballindalloch, in Morayshire, was to 
plant the cedar in woods where large trees 
were growing at from twenty to forty feet 
distant from each other. So situated, the 
cedar seems to take at once an upward direc- 
tion towards the air and light, the surround- 
ing trees discouraging any unnecessary side 
branches, which forms the great evil of these 
trees when planted in open places. 
Varieties. — The following may be distin- 
guished : — 
C L.foliis argenteis (silver-leaved Cedar 
of Lebanon.) — This variety has its leaves of a 
silvery hue, which, however, it is apt some- 
times to lose. The most perfect tree of this 
kind is on the banks of the Thames, at the 
Countess of Shaftesbury's villa, Richmond. It 
is not propagated by nurserymen. 
C. L. nana is a small stunted variety, very 
prostrate in its habit, and never reaching be- 
yond the size of a bush. Plants are sold at 
7s. 6d. each. (1846.) 
Cedrus Deodara, Roxburgh (Deodar, or 
Indian Cedar.) — Leaves in clusters, evergreen, 
acute, rigid, with a light glaucous bloom, longer 
than those of C. Libani. Cones in pairs, 
peduncled, erect, oval, four and a half to five 
inches long, and about three and a half inches 
broad ; scales broad and closely pressed, fre- 
quently covered with resinous exudation. 
A magnificent tree, well entitled to be con- 
sidered one of the princes of the vegetable 
kingdom. It is a grand object, and graceful 
as well. Standing singly, it forms a magnifi- 
cent pyramid, clad on all sides with ample 
pensile spray : in thickets, where its side 
branches are discouraged, it rises in a straight 
column to the height of 130 or 150 feet, the 
admiration alike of the savage and civilized. 
The Hindoos hold it in the greatest venera- 
tion, and throughout the elevated districts of 
Eastern India it seems to awaken in them 
some becoming ideas of the God of Nature. 
Their temples are near to groves of it, and, 
in many instances, it is not used by them ex- * 
cept to burn as incense on occasions of the 
greatest solemnity. 
The geography of this tree is fixed by tra- 
vellers as comprehending the mountainous dis- 
tricts throughout the north of Hindostan, parti- 
cularly the provinces of Almora and Kamaon, 
in Nepal, and as far as Cashmere, where the 
wood is in many cases intermixed with brick 
and mortar in the construction of houses. It 
is common on the hills surrounding Deyrah 
Dhoon, which is bounded on the east by the 
Ganges, and on the west by its mighty tribu- 
tary the Jumna ; and it is generally believed 
to prevail throughout the Himalayan range of 
hills. 
The mode now generally adopted through- 
out Britain of propagating this tree will lead, 
in the course of a few years, to the greatest 
possible disappointment. Grafted on the 
common larch, which, as every one knows, is 
a deciduous plant of humble growth, this tree 
must become very much deteriorated. Who 
supposes that the humble larch is capable of 
sending out the vast, and strong, and deep 
anchoring in the soil which is necessary to 
maintain the lovely and gigantic pyramid 
which, on a proper foundation, this tree 
would assuredly become ? The practice is a 
foolish attempt at cheating Nature ; and 
planters should be on their guard to purchase 
those only which are, root and branch, directly 
descended from the sky-crowned trees of the 
Himalaya. Our mountains will grow proud 
of such, but the mongrel tribe had better at 
once give way to the true Scotch pine tree. 
Cuttings are infinitely better than inarched 
plants ; but by far the best mode is to get 
the seeds. As elsewhere remarked, the rainy 
season, peculiar to India, commences in July 
and ends about the 20th of September, so 
that the best time to gather the Deodar cones 
is shortly after the fair weather has com- 
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