322 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
report of the Garden seven years later, it was said to be 
in a “dying condition.” At the time the new Manage¬ 
ment Committee came into office, that one was quite 
dead. They left the tree standing until the fungi on it 
became a danger to the rest of the trees in the Garden, 
when most reluctantly it was felled in March 1904, all 
the sound parts of the timber being carefully preserved. 
Miller gives a good account of them in his time. “ The 
four trees,” he writes, “ (which as I have been credibly 
informed) were planted there in the year 1683, and at 
that time were not above three feet high; two of which 
Trees are at this time (viz. 1757) upwards of eleven 
feet and a Half in girt, at two Feet above ground, and 
thereby afford a goodly shade in the hotest Season of the 
Year.” He goes on to point out that they were planted 
so near the pond, which was bricked up to within two 
feet of them, that the roots could not spread on one 
side. Whether the water was good for them he is not 
sure, but feels certain it was injurious to cramp the 
roots. The two specimens nearest the green-house had 
had some of their branches lopped off, to prevent their 
shading the grass, and suffered in consequence. Though 
one remained for nearly 150 years after Miller gave these 
measurements, it was only 13 feet round the trunk 
at the base when it was felled, and was so completely 
rotten it must soon have fallen. Miller records that 
three of the trees began producing cones about 1732, 
and that in his time the seeds ripened, and germinated 
freely, so it is probable that many plants in England are 
descendants of the Chelsea trees. That these were 
actually the first to be grown in England there is not 
much doubt. Evelyn regrets in his “ Sylva ” the absence 
of the cedars in England. The only trees which have 
