CEDRUS LIBANI 
A 
44 
denying that the appearance of the timber is against it. It would seem to stand to reason that a soft, 
spongy wood cannot be very durable, and we presume we must allow that the wood of the English- 
grown Cedar sometimes is of that character. A table, which Sir Joseph Banks had made out of the 
Hillingdon Cedar, is said by Loudon to have been soft, without scent (except that of common deal), 
and possessed little variety of veining; and he mentions that the same remarks applied to a table which 
he had made from a plank from one of the trees of Whitton Park. The layers were distinctly marked, 
the softer or summer side of each being whitish, loose, and spongy, the harder or winter part being close- 
grained, and of a light-brown colour. 
The strength of the timber in this country is also no indication of that in its native country. It 
seems unquestionable that in the latter it is much greater than in English-grown timber. The old branch 
which Sir J oseph Hooker brought from Lebanon gives a totally different idea of the hardness of Cedar 
wood from what English-grown specimens do; but as there is no prospect of the Lebanon timber 
ever becoming an article of commerce in our days, our practical concern with it is very much limited to 
the former. 
Loudon tells us that the result of some experiments which he made on the strength of a plant from the 
large tree at Whitton, which was blown down in November 1836, was that he found it very inferior in point 
of strength to the common English-grown Scotch Pine. The colour and strain of the wood, he adds, were 
precisely the same as those of a specimen received by Mr. Lambert from Morocco—that is, of the Cedrus 
atlantica. We have in our account of the Deodar given the particulars of a comparative trial of the 
strength of that tree and the Cedar, from a specimen presented to the Royal Horticultural Society by Mr. 
Tillery, the gardener of the Duke of Portland, where the Deodar had been inarched or grafted on the 
Cedar, so that the lower part or stock furnished timber of the Cedar, and the upper part timber of the 
Deodar. A piece a foot in length and an inch square was taken from each, within a foot of the spot 
where the graft had been made, so that it furnished a portion of the timber of each, which not only had 
lived under the same climate, exposure, and other conditions of life, experienced the same degree of 
temperature at the same time, had bent to the same blasts, been 
frozen by the same cold, thawed by the same sunshine, and 
refreshed by the same showers ; but were also of the same size and 
age, growing on the same root, and, of course, in the same soil. 
We could never, therefore, expect to have a fairer opportunity of 
testing the strength of the two timbers with entire impartiality, always supposing the climate to be equally 
suitable to both. On testing these the Cedar broke under a weight of 378 lbs., the Deodar under that of 
448 lbs., which would make the latter about one-sixth stronger than the former. Figs. 32 and 33, drawn 
from these pieces of wood, shew the nature of the fracture of each. The tenacity of the Cedar (fig. 32), 
as indicated by its deflection under the weight which broke it, was still less than that of the Deodar 
(fig- 33)- It would therefore appear that little can be said in 
favour either of the strength or tenacity of home-grown Cedar. 
We are more disposed to accept its incorruptibility when 
not exposed to the weather, as also a modified degree of 
fragrance, and consequent power of resisting the attacks of 
Fig. 33.—Breakage of Cedrus Deodara. 
insects. 
The true explanation of the discrepancy between the received belief in the endurance of the timber 
taken from Lebanon, and the apparent aptitude to decay of that grown in England, is doubtless the 
difference in their rate of growth. It is not improbable that the difference in the longevity, the durability, 
as well as in the fragrance of the Lebanon and English trees, may be in proportion to their slowness of 
Loudon gives the actual weight of Cedar wood per cubic foot, as determined by Varennes de Fenille, 
Mussenbrack, 
Fig. 32.—Breakage of Cedrus Libani. 
