2406

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

The Hammersmith Cedar.

most remarkable tree was kindly presented to us by the proprietor, J. Gost-ling, Esq.; on a portion of which we made several experiments, which provedit to be very inferior in point of strengthto the common English-grown Scotchpine, and the remainder we have had madeinto a table. The colour and the grain ofthe wood are precisely the same as those ofaspecimen accompanied by cones and leavesreceived by Mr. Lambert from Morocco.

At St. Ann’s Hill is a cedar planted by theHonourable Mrs. Fox, in 1794, which, in1834, was 50 ft. high, diameter of thetrunk 3 ft. 6 in., and of the head 72 ft.

At Redleaf, near Penshurst, there arecedars which, in 1837, were 36 ft. high,and girted 4 ft. 6 in. at 3 ft. from theground. These were raised from seeds exactly 20 years before, by the pro-prietor, W. Wells, Esq., who purchased the cone from which the seeds weretaken in a London seed-shop in 1816. Another cedar at Redleaf, after beingplanted 27 years, when under 3 ft. high, is 52 ft. high, and 5 ft. 6 in. in circum-ference at 3 ft. from the ground. In Scotland and Ireland, in sheltered situa-tions, and on good soil, the growth of the cedar is found to be nearly as rapidas that of the larch. When the leading shoot of the cedar is broken, itdoes not form another, and ceases to grow in height. The cedar in the Jardindes Plantes, which lost its leader at the commencement of the French revo-lution, has not increased in height since; but its branches have extended45 ft. French (nearly 50 ft. English) on each side, giving a diameter to thehead of nearly 100 ft.

The most remarkable cedars in point of age, near London, are those inthe Chelsea Botanic Garden, now in a state of rapid decay ; and of whichfig. 2270. is a portrait to the scale of 1 in. to 50 ft. There was till lately afine old tree at Hammersmith, in the garden of a house which was formerlyoccupied by Bishop Atterbury, of which fig. 2272. is a portrait from an en-graving by Strutt. There is a very old cedar at Enfield (fig. 2269.), by somesupposed to be older than the Chelsea cedars.

At Croome, in Worcestershire, there is a cedarremarkable for its magnitude, and the naked-ness of its branches, of which fig. 2271. is aportrait reduced from a drawing kindly madefor us by Miss Radcliffe of Worcester. Thetallest cedar in the neighbourhood of Londonis one at Kenwood, figured in our last Volume,which is 95 ft. high; and the handsomest isone at Syon, also figured in our last Volume,and of which fig. 2268. is a portrait reducedto the same scale as the other figures of cedarshere given. In Scotland, the largest cedarsare at Hopetoun House, and in Dalkeith Park;and there is a very handsome one, comparatively young, on the estate of Gray,in Forfarshire, of which fig. 2273. is a portrait, reduced from a drawing sentto us by Mr. Robertson, gardener to Earl Gray, at Kinfauns Castle. Thelargest cedars in Ireland are believed to be those at Castletown, the seatof Colonel Conolly; or at Mount Anville, the seat of Counsellor West.

Geography. The cedar of Lebanon is generally supposed to grow nowhere but on that mountain ; but it was discovered, in 1832, on severalmountains of the same group, by ft. Bove, ex-director of agriculture of Ibra-ham Pafha, at Cairo. In passing from Sakhlehe to Der-el-Khamer, onthe afternoon of October 11., M. Bove passed through a valley, the rightside of which was bounded by a mountain, and on its summit some thou-sands of cedars of Lebanon were growing, covered with catkins. “ These

2273

■smx

The Gray Cedar.