CEDRUS ATLANTICA. 
7 
variety; for example, from Poles, in Herts, we have the following note: The Mount Atlas variety of 
Cedar was browned ; the Cedvus Libanz Afvicana was much injured. But such instances we believe to 
have been merely accidental, arising from the constitution of the individual specimens. It has been 
exposed to another severe trial in the frost in January 1867. It stood this better than the Deodar, which, 
where unprotected by snow, was in many places killed or much browned. There was, however, one very 
important difference between the severe weather in 1860-61 and that in 1867. The former came at two 
times, and, although the second frost was not nearly so severe as the first, it killed a great many plants which 
had stood the first. Their lives had been spared, but their stamina was gone, and they were unable 
to stand a less severe and less protracted attack. In 1867 there was only one storm; and although 
the cold was in some places very great, so was the snow, and it consequently did comparatively little 
mischief. 
The general experience seems to be that it is as hardy, and a more rapid grower, in our colder 
districts, than the Lebanon Cedar. 
M. Andre Leroy, the well-known nurseryman of Angers, who has made a speciality of Conifers, 
speaks in very strong terms of the “ immense advantages ” which the Mount Atlas Cedar has in cultiva¬ 
tion over the Cedar of Lebanon; and he considers that few species of Conifers, with the exception, perhaps, 
of the Sequoia semfiervirens and S. Wellingtonia, grow faster than the Cedrus Atlantica. In a recent 
paper in the Belgique Horticole (p. 59, 1867) he gives a comparison of the rates of growth of it and 
the Cedar of Lebanon, both being under exaCtly the same conditions, which shews the following 
results:— 
CEDAR OF 
LEBANON. 
CEDAR 
OF ATLAS. 
Age. 
Height. 
Height. 
Years. 
Metres. 
Centimetres. 
Metres. 
Centimetres. 
I 
O 
6 to 8 
O 
10 to 15 
2 
O 
12 „ 15 
O 
20 „ 30 
3 
O 
18 „ 25 
O 
40 » 50 
4 
O 
30 
I 
O 
5 
O 
50 
I 
75 
6 
O 
75 
2 
5° 
7 
I 
0 
3 and 
upwards. 
shewing a growth of three times the rapidity in the first seven years. 
Once arrived at the age of seven, he states the annual growth at often more than one metre; and, to 
give some idea of its vigour, he cites a tree planted at his place which, although only twelve years old 
(including the year of germination), is now one metre in circumference, which is equivalent to more than 
a foot in diameter. 
M. Leroy remarks, too, that while at least as hardy as the Cedar of Lebanon, it is much less delicate. 
This is not a paradox, although it looks like one. It means that while both will stand the climate 
equally well, we may take liberties with the Cedar of Atlas in the way of transplanting, unfavourable 
position, soil, and exposure, which we could not take with the Cedar of Lebanon. It grows (so far as he 
has seen) equally well in all soils, and he believes that it will prove a most valuable forest tree for 
clothing barren and unprotected wastes on which nothing else will thrive. We must remember, how¬ 
ever, that M. Leroy’s experience relates to a rather more southern country and more genial climate 
than we possess in Britain. 
We may note the following places as possessing good specimens of trees whose African parentage 
there is no reason to doubt, viz.:— 
[ 21 ] 
D 
