CHAP. CXIJ1.

coni'fekje. ce'drus.

2425

2282

In private nurseries, where the plants are not likely to be sent to any distance,they may be planted in the free soil in nursery lines, like the pinaster and otherof the more rare pines and firs; and, when they are removed to their final situ-ation, their roots may be protected from the air, by immersing them in mud orpuddle. In the nursery culture of the cedar, care must be taken not to injurethe leading shoot, which is said not to be readily renewed when broken off.In general, it is advisable to tie the leader to a stake, till the plants are placedwhere they are finally to remain; after which they may be left to themselves.In their progress from young plants to full-grown trees, they require verylittle pruning, and suffer severely when large branches are cut off. Millermentions two of his four trees, which had some branches cut off to admit therays of the sun into a green-house, whereby they were so much checked, as, inabove 40 years’ growth, to be little more than half the size of the other two,which were not pruned; and, Boutcher having planted two trees, they grewfor 16 years amazingly fast, and promised to be noble plants, till an ignorantgardener unadvisedly cut off several of their oldest under branches; afterwhich, he says, they advanced little or nothing in height, lost their leadingshoots, and became ragged and bushy. Notwithstanding this, it is the practiceof nurserymen to shorten the lateral branches of the larger plants kept for sale;and it does not appear that they suffer much by it. When the cedar isplanted in close masses, either alone or with other trees, the side branches arechoked, but still the tree continues to grow almost as rapidly as the larch, orsilver fir, when similarly treated ; so that, after all, the cedar is, perhaps, notmore injured by the removal of its side branches, than any other pine or firwould be. All the dbietinae, as we have before stated, suffer more or lessby the shortening or removal of branches, whether small or large, which havenot begun to decay.

Accidents, Diseases, S,c. The wide-spreading branches of the cedar are aptto be weighed down and broken by heavy falls of snow; but the tree is lessliable to be blown down by high winds than the larch, or such pines and firsas do not throw out wide-spreading branches near the ground. It is notsubject to diseases, and it is less liable to be attacked by insects, as far as wehave heard or observed, than any other species of the pine and fir tribe. Theseeds being large are eagerly sought after by squirrels ; but these animals, inparks and pleasure-grounds, are generally considered more ornamental thaninjurious.

Statistics. Recorded Trees. The large tree at Hillingdon has been already mentioned, and itsdimensions are given in p. 59. The dimensions of the large cedar at Hendon are given in p. 57.; andthose of the Enfield cedar in p. 48. Another remarkable tree, not so well known as the above, isthat already noticed as having been planted by Sir Stephen Fox, in his native village, and burialplace, of Farley, near Salisbury, about the same timeas, or before, those at Chelsea and Chiswick. TheFarley cedar was cut down by the late Earl of Radnor in 1812, and was then 66 ft. high ; the diame-ter of the trunk 5 ft. 6 in., and that of the space covered with its branches, from east to west, 130 ft.It was a remarkably sound tree, not a single branch being decayed. The Hammersmith cedar(fig. 2272. in p. 2406.), cut down in 1836, was 59 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk about 5 ft., and