CHAPTER V 
NOTABLE TREES 
Some Fine 
Specimens. 
Cedar of 
Lebanon 
( Cedrus 
Libani ). 
The finer trees to be seen at Kew are scattered indiscriminately about 
the grounds. Excepting native species, they are nearly all growing 
on the areas that have been longest under cultivation. 
Many of them, in fact, are to be found on the site 
of the old Botanic Garden of 1760. The trees men- 
tioned in this chapter do not by any means exhaust the remarkable 
specimens. But they serve, as far as space permits, to show that 
whilst Kew is unrivalled in the number of species it contains, it is 
not deficient in trees of individual merit and distinction. 
The old Cedars of Kew are now sadly reduced in number com- 
pared with those of 1850. The smoke of Brentford and London has 
no doubt helped to shorten the lives of many of them. 
Still, about a score remain, scattered over various parts 
of the grounds. A good specimen, which stands near 
the Sun Temple, was planted there in 1762 ; and another, 
the finest that Kew now possesses, terminates the most 
northerly of the three vistas radiating from the Palm House. It is 
69 feet high, with a trunk 14 feet 4 inches in girth. 
On the same lawn as the Seven Sister Elms, there is a good 
specimen of the Chestnut -leaved Oak. It has a trunk 
9 feet 2 inches in circumference. The species is found 
wild in two somewhat widely separate localities : the 
Caucasus and the mountains of Algeria. Its leaves 
are very much like those of the sweet chestnut. 
Close to the Temperate Fernery there is an ancient specimen 
of the Chinese Wistaria, trained over a large iron cage. How long 
it has been growing on this spot one cannot say. It 
once covered the eastern end of the “ Great Stove ” 
built in 1761, for the Princess Dowager of Wales, by 
Sir William Chambers. When this house was pulled down 
in 1861 the wistaria was preserved. Although showing 
the effects of age, it usually makes a fine display of flowers in May. 
191 
Chestnut- 
leaved Oak 
( Quercas 
cast arise folia). 
Chinese 
Wistaria 
( Wistaria 
chinensis). 
