CHAP. CXIII.

coni'fer*. ce'drus.

2415

heaped up round the base of its trunk, as high as 3 ft., about 30 years ago ;and indeed, had not the tree been planted on a mound of rubbish, which wasdry, and consequently pervious to the atmosphere, the accumulation of soilmust have killed it. The cedar at Montignv, planted at the same time as thatin the Jardin des Plantes , but in a good soil, has a trunk at least one thirdlarger than that of the tree in the Jardin des Plantes . A cedar planted onthe estate of Du Hamel, at Vrigny, near Pithiviers, in 1743, had, in1835, a trunk 12 ft. 8 in. in circumference, at the height of 6 ft. from theground, and 16 ft. in circumference at the base. This tree is between 70 ft.and 80 ft. high, French (between 75 ft. 10 in. and 86 ft. 8 in. English ), andis in a very flourishing state, resembling a magnificent pyramid. M. Loise-leur Deslongchamps mentions two other fine cedars at Vrigny, and severalat Denainvilliers; both estates which belonged to the celebrated Du Hamel,and which are now the property of his grand-nephew, M. Fougeroux. Otherremarkable cedars in the neighbourhood of Paris are, one in the ancientgarden of the Marechal des Noailles, at St. Germain; that in the gardenMarboeuf, in the Champs-Elysees ; those of Trianon, which are from 8 ft. to10 ft. in circumference, at the height of a man from the ground ; and one in thepark at Franconville, seven leagues north from Paris, the property of M. A.Leroux, which, in May, 1837, had a trunk 12 ft. 3 in. in circumference at thebase, and which was planted by a man who was still alive in 1837, and whowas then 90 years of age. ( Hist, da Cedre du Liban, &c., p. 39.)

It appears from the ages and dimensions of these trees, that the cedarthrives fully as well in France as it does in England; and, as there is a greatwant of evergreens in the neighbourhood of Paris , and in all those parts ofFrance which have an equally cold climate, it seems very desirable that thecedar should be more generally planted in that country than it at present is.The greatest planter of cedars in France appears to have been the fatherof the present Viscount Hericart de Thury, who, in 1780, planted manytrees on the mountain of St. Martin-le-pauvre, Department de l’Oise. Thesetrees, in 1837, Loiselenr Deslongchamps informs us, were in a state of the mostvigorous vegetation. (Ibid., p. 45.) The tree is propagated in all the prin-cipal French nurseries; partly from imported cones, and partly' from conesripened in the country.

The botanical history of the cedar is short. Dodonseus, and other ancientobtanists, called it Cedrus magna, the great cedar, adding other' epithets ;but all agreeing that it was one of the Conifer*. Tournefort considered it alarch, and called it Earix orientalis; in which he was followed by Du Hamel.Miller called it Earix Cedrus. Linnaeus considered it to be a pine; and hisname for it of Pinus Cedrus has been adopted by most of the Continental and•British botanists. Poiret, in his Dictionnaire Encyclopedique, calls it d'biesCedrus; and he has been followed by Loiseleur Deslongchamps , in his very ablearticle on the cedar in the Nouveau Du Hamel, and in his Histoire du Cedre,&c., received hy us since this article has been in type; and by Dr. Lindley,in the Penny Cyclopaedia. Barrelier, in his posthumous work, Plantre per Gal-bum, Hispaniam, et Italiam observaice, published in 1714, at Paris , by Jussieu,makes it a distinct genus, and calls it Cedrus Libani.

Poetical Allusions. The cedar is frequently mentioned by the Latin poets;out most of the allusions appear to have reference to the junipers that arecalled cedars, rather than to the cedar of Lebanon . Virgil, speaking of thetorests of Caucasus, says,—

—- ** Dant utile lignum

Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrosque, cupressosque.” Geor., n. 442.

-“ Heaven their various plants for use designs ;

For houses cedars, and for shipping pines. Dryden’s Trans.

^ TS/cgics, says that an illuminated title, and paper stained

wi the juice of the cedar, would ill agree with the unhappy circumstances oftheir author:_

... Nec titulus minio, nec cedro charta notetur.” Trisi.>\. 7.

uding to the custom of anointing the leaves of books with cedar juice, topreserve them from the depredations of the worm.

7 R