Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/285

 CHAPTER XXXII.

CEDARS.

THE CEDAR TREE (Abies Cedrus), THE CEDAR OF LEBANON,

found upon Mount Lebanon, the Taurus, and also upon many of the mountains in Asia Minor. It is a very stately and majestic evergreen tree, with heavy wide-spreading branches thrown out horizontally from low down the stem, bearing clustered leaves and erect obtuse oblong cones. Very extraordinary accounts have been given of the longevity of these trees, but these, I think, should be received with some little reserve.

It is stated in a small work on useful and ornamental planting, that at Highclere Park, in Hampshire, the Earl of Caernarvon planted seeds in 1739, from a cone gathered upon Mount Lebanon. Only two germinated, which, after being planted out, remained rather stunted, and without showing any signs of vigour. In 1767 they were transplanted into a poor soil, in a bleak situation, being at that time 17 inches in girth at one foot from the ground, and from that date their growth was considered to be satisfactory.

These two Cedar trees, therefore, when 93 years old,