chap. cxm.

CONVFER.E. CE'DRUS.

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Thomson the poet), on the banks of the Thames at Richmond, ofwhich there is a portrait in our last Volume. It is singular that thenurserymen have never taken the trouble to raise plants from theseeds, or from scions, of this very beautiful variety.i C. L. 3 nana is a very dwarf variety, of which we have only seen oneplant at Hendon Rectory, Middlesex, which, 10 or 12 years old,is only from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, making shoots from 2 in. to 3 in. in ayear.

Other Varieties. At Pepper Harrow, in Surrey, the seat of LordViscount Middleton, there are a great many cedar trees, some of whichare quite fastigiate in their habit of growth, resembling immense cypresses;while others have the branches depressed at their insertion in the trunk, andtheir extremities pendulous like those of the hemlock spruce. Some aredwarf and bushy, and others very tall, with comparatively few branches ; theleaves of some are dark green, while those of others are quite glaucous.The cones are of very different sizes. These variations arise, no doubt,simply from the tendency of the cedar to sport when raised from seed ; assimilar variations are always found, more or less, wherever the cedar has beenplanted in considerable quantities. In the Garden Lemonnier, at Versailles,is a cedar about 20 ft. high, with a trunk 2 ft. in circumference at thebase. It is apparently very old, and has a knotty stunted appearance, likethe gnarled branches of an aged oak. It has never produced seeds (Ann.d’Hort., xvi. p. 337), and is most probably only a variation.

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Description. A widely spreading tree, generally from 50 ft. to 80 ft. high ;and, when standing singly, covering a space with its branches, the diameter ofwhich is often much greater than its height. The leading shoot, in youngtrees,generally inclines to one side, but it becomes erect, as the tree increasesin height It is covered with a brownishbark, which becomes cracked as the treeadvances inage. Thehorizontalbranches,or limbs, when the tree is exposed onevery side, are very large in proportionto the trunk: they are disposed indistinct layers, or stages, and the dis-tance to which they extend diminishesas they approach the top ; thus forminga pyramidal head, broad in proportionto its height. The extremities of thelower branches, in such trees, generallyrest on the ground, bent down by their

own weight; but they do not root into it. The summit, in young trees, isspiry; but in old trees it becomes broad and flattened. When the cedar ofLebanon is drawn up among other trees, it produces a clean straight trunk,differing only in appearance from that of the larch in the colour of its bark;but having been long considered more as an ornamental than a useful tree, itis seldom found planted in masses, or intermixed with other trees in planta-tions. If a branch of the cedar is cut off', it is stated in Lambert’s Pinus, that“ the part remaining in the trunk gradually loosens itself, and assumes around form resembling a potato; and, if the bark covering it be struck smartlywith a hammer, the knot leaps out.” This fact, Mr. Lambert states, wascommunicated to him by Sir Joseph Banks; but he adds that he had triedthe experiment himself. The branchlets are disposed in a flat fan-likemanner on the branches ; and, as they are numerous and thickly set withleaves, single detached trees appear, at a little distance, a dense mass offoliage. The leaves are straight, about 1 in. long, slender, nearly cylindrical,tapering to a point, and are on short footstalks : they are generally of a darkgrass green ; but, in the variety called the silver cedar, they have a beautifulelaucous hue. The leaves, which remain two vears on the branches, are at

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