40 
CEDRUS LIBANI 
late head gardener there, carefully counted the annual rings, after oiling across the butt, so as to make 
them more distinct, and found that the tree had lived 145 years, or it may be a year or two more. It 
must, therefore, have been planted in 1720, or perhaps a few years earlier, as its first growths might be 
below the line where the saw passed. This gives a somewhat lower ratio than that we have above 
arrived at. Reckoning from the centre, 
Average Width 
Average Width 
of each 
of each 
Annual Ring. 
Annual Ring. 
The 
I St 
10 rings occupied 3^ inches, 
4 lines. 
The 8th 
10 rings 
occupied 1^ 
inches, 
i-J lines. 
The 
2d 
>> x 4 >> 
2 „ 
The 9th 
2 1 
» ^8 
2 l 
>> 
The 
3 d 
)) 
2 — 
» ^4 >> 
2— 
>> 
The 10th 
>. 2 i 
2 3 
^ As >> 
The 
4th 
if 
2 — 
.. z 2 >> 
3 >> 
The nth 
» ii 
.. 
The 
5 th 
if 
2 3 
)> 2 4 » 
3 t >> 
The 12th 
3 
» 4 
1 
The 
6 th 
a 
2 — 
>> >> 
3 >> 
The 13th 
3 
>> 4 
1 
The 
7 th 
a 
2 JL 
>> 2 4 *> 
3 >> 
The rings shew a great uniformity, until the tree reaches about one hundred years of age, when the 
breadth of the rings began to diminish. 
We may remark, while speaking of the old trees at Chiswick House, that the largest of them is now 
(1882) 18 feet in girth ; whereas, we learn from Loudon that, in 1837, forty-five years previous, it was only 
134 feet, shewing an increase at the rate of about a foot in girth every ten years—that is, 4 inches in 
diameter—equal to an average breadth of 22 lines for each annual ring during these forty-five years. 
In October of the present year (1882) Mr. Barron, Superintendent of the Royal Horticultural 
Gardens, informs us that there are now fifty-one large trees in existence at Chiswick House (three were 
blown down a few years ago). All are in fair condition and quite healthy in appearance, having made good 
growth last season; in the autumn of which, however, some large branches were broken. In company 
with Mr. May, the present head gardener there, Mr. Barron measured seven of the largest trees, and 
ascertained that their circumference, at about three feet from the ground, was as follows:— 
ft. 
in. 
ft. 
in. 
ft. 
in. 
ft. in. 
No. 1. 
.18 
0 
No. 3. 
. 15 
0 
No. 5. 
. 13 
6 
No. 7. 
„ 2. 
8 
» 4 . 
.14 
9 
„ 6 . 
.13 
4 
The largest has a short bole, breaking out into a number of spreading branches. 
Mr. Edmonds informed us, in 1866, that the branches of the largest tree had since 1830 spread 
laterally 18 feet—that is, 6 inches per annum. He says: “In the year 1830, when I first came to this 
place, I happen to have noticed how far one of the branches of a Cedar was from the pedestal of a vase. 
There was then 12 feet from the point of the shoot to the side of the stone pedestal next to it, and now 
it has reached 6 feet beyond this—making almost exactly 18 feet of growth in the thirty-six years. This 
branch is on the south side of the tree. The above accords with my observations generally on the growth 
of all the Cedar trees. Some seasons the growth is not more than four inches; a warmer summer will 
produce six; and I have noticed a growth of eight inches added when the season has been one of 
unusual heat.” At the present time (1882) Mr. Barron informs us that the branch in question is 8 feet 
beyond the pedestal, so that the lateral growth in the past sixteen years has been 2 feet only. 
On the above points M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps arrives at very much the same conclusions as 
those above mentioned. He says : 
“ Like several other trees which live for centuries, the Cedar grows but slowly in its first years ; one of its young plants scarcely makes 
more than 3 or 4 inches in height at the end of its first summer, and twice as much when it is two years old. Its growth continues inconsiderable 
during the three or four following years; but reckoning for seven or eight years, especially when it is planted in the open air, its increase in 
height and in thickness becomes much more rapid : it increases often more than a foot in height each year. Desfontaines measured at the estate 
of the Duhamel du Monceau, a Cedar thirty-three years old, which was about 40 feet in height; and a growth of more than four feet in one year 
has even been seen (Bose. Nouv. Diet. d’Agric., 1821, vol. iii., p. 531). I have said above what its increase in thickness might be, and I believe 
that this tree is that of all others of the same family in which the increase is greatest in this respect. We have besides already seen that its 
increase in thickness decreases with years as much as it advances in age, but this is a law which is common to all other trees ” (Loiseleur Hist, du 
Cedre). 
It does not appear that the fast growing Cedars in this country have by any means the longevity of 
their 
