CHAP. CXI It.

coni'fer.e. ce'drus.

2423

the attention of every artist. I have seen numerous sketches and drawingsof the scene around them, and I may venture to say that it was the cedars,and they only, that were the inducement. Those in the Botanic Gardenat Chelsea (see fig. 2270. in p. 2405.) are never passed unheeded; thusshowing how valuable cedars are in landscape composition, and, consequentlyin landscape-gardening.” ( Gard. Mag., i. p. 122.)

The architectural character of the cedar, noticed by Mr. Thompson, hasrendered this tree a great favourite with painters, and more especially withthe justly celebrated Martin. This great artist has introduced the flat head ofthe aged cedar into his imaginary view of the Garden of Eden (Jig. 2280.);

2280

;>3*sa»t

into the terraces of the gardens of Babylon (Jig. 2281.); and into his beauideal of the gardens of Nineveh (Jig. 2282.), as shown in his celebrated pictureof the fall of that city.

Soil, Situation, Propagation, Sfc. The cedar, as mav have been observed inthe case of the Chelsea trees, thrives well in dry gravelly soils, where the rootscan have access to water; which may be said to be the case with most of thedbietinae. Perhaps it may be sufficient to observe, that the cedar will growin every soil and situation suitable for the larch. We are not certain that itwill grow equally well with that tree at great elevations; though we havelittle doubt of it, provided it were planted in masses. In the neighbourhoodof London , it has certainly attained the largest size in deep sandy soil, as atSyon, Whitton, and Pain’s Hill; but the sand at these places is not poor; andat Whitton, where the tree has attained the greatest height and bulk, theroots are within reach of water. Boutcher observes that no tree will growin more forbidding, poor, and hungry soil, than the cedar; and he instances,in proof of this, the trees on Mount Lebanon ; but these, in point of heightand the spread of the branches, are mere bushes in comparison with those atWhitton. The cones, which, as already observed, are not ripe till the autumnof the third year, will keep five or six years after being taken from thetree, so that there is never any risk of getting seeds too old to vegetate, inpurchasing the cones that are imported from the Levant. If cones producedin Britain are kept a year after being gathered, they may be opened withgreater ease than when recently taken from the tree. To facilitate the opera-tion of extracting the seeds, the cones may be steeped in water for a day ortwo, and afterwards split by driving a sharp conical iron spike through their