CEDRUS DEODARA. 
7 
as to produce any very fenfible effedt. We are told that the forefts of the Deodar abound in fragrance, 
but we have not noticed any fimilar ftatement regarding the Cedar. If we try to compare the odour of 
the cut twig and bark, or the bruifed leaf, by limply fmelling the bruifed or cut piece, we find very little 
difference, except that that of the Deodar is the moft perceptible. But there is another way of telling this, 
which gives more decided refults. If we boil the twig of a conifer for a few minutes in a very fmall quan¬ 
tity of water, we fhall find that the water, when cold, has generally a much ftronger fmell than the twig 
had before boiling, but, which is curious, it is not the fame fmell. We have no doubt that a chemift could 
diftil the fcents of all the conifers, and bottle them up for reference, and that in moll inftances the odour of 
the contents of each phial would announce the fpecies from which it had been taken. On applying the teffc 
of boiling to the Cedars, we find that the Deodar produces a ftrong and pleafing fragrance, but not fuch a 
fcent as might be expedted fiom a fir; nothing terebmthme or refinous about it, but a fine nutty fragrance, 
fomethmg (although faintly) like that of oil of almonds. The Cedar of Lebanon gives a fainter trace of 
the fame odour, but we have not found it in Cedrus Atlantica. We have not obferved any difference in 
the odour of the feeds, but we can vouch for the young cones of the Deodar and Cedar of Lebanon, both, 
while in their green ftate, giving out an exquifite fragrance; but our knowledge of the odour of the young 
cones of the C. A tlantica is defective. 
A difference in the fmell of the timber is a point which has been much infifted on. The wood of the 
Deodar is faid to be “ highly perfumed with a moft grateful aromatic odour, which it never lofes. It has a 
peculiar odour, fo that no infedt will touch it.”—(Madden.) “ The wood is highly refinous, and gives a deli¬ 
cious perfume to the air.”* A writer in the Gardeners Chronicle (25th Feb. 1854) fays,—“ The timber of the 
Deodar is in one moft effential particular diftindt from Cedar of Lebanon. The latter is not only foft, but 
very flightly fcented, not much more fo than moft kinds of deal; on the other hand, the fragrance of Deodar 
is fo powerful, that while the workmen in the meeting-room of the Horticultural Society in Regent Street 
were planing a large flab from India, which had been prefented to the Society, not only was the houfe filled 
with its fweet odour, but the fmell was diftinctly perceptible in the ftreet when the door was left open. The 
fhavings of it torch and flare with a great flame, but thofe of the Cedar of Lebanon, whether Englifh or 
Syrian, burn with no more fiercenefs than fhavings of pine wood ; in fadt, they are as dry to the touch; while, 
on the contrary, thofe of the Deodar are remarkably undtuous.” It is, however, an error to fay that the 
Cedar of Lebanon is not more fcented than moft kinds of deal. It depends upon their age, and the amount 
of refin with which they are charged. The individual fpecimens of Deodar timber on which the obfervations 
were made in Regent Street, muft merely have been more highly charged with refin than the fpecimens 
which had then been tried of the Cedar of Lebanon. Its prefence in quantity would fufficiently account for 
their being harder, more undtuous, burning more brightly, and emitting a ftronger perfume ; as we find to be 
the cafe, for example, in the Scotch Fir when brought from fuch a country as Memel or Braemar, where the 
tree grows flowly, and is clofe-grained ; while trees grown in moift warm diftridts in England are compara¬ 
tively foft, with lefs refin, and confequently lefs undtuoufnefs, perfume, and inflammability. When the Cedar 
of Lebanon is of fufftcient age it is as fragrant as the Deodar. Mr Wilfon Saunders tells us that when 
fome old Cedar trees were cut down at Putney, fome years fince, he got a plank from one of them, which he 
has ufed in his garden as a board on which to place pots. It has now been there for years, expofed to the 
weather, and has been painted; and, notwithftanding that, it ftill, whenever the fun fhines warmly upon it, 
fpreads its powerful and charadteriftic perfume all around. 
There is now in the colledtion of the Royal Plorticultural Society at South Kenfington a fine longi¬ 
tudinal fedtion, a foot and more in diameter, of a Deodar inarched upon a Cedar of Lebanon, fent to the 
Society by Mr Tillery, gardener to his Grace the Duke of Portland, illuftrative of the timber of both the 
Deodar and Cedar. In this fpecimen the growth of both and the junction by the inarching can be perfedtly 
traced, and we have at the one end of the flab the wood of the Cedar, and at the other that of the Deodar. 
_ _ The 
[ 9 ] 
*. Jamiefon, in Report on Phyfical Aspect , &c., of the Punjaub, 5th Oct. 1851. 
D 
