Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/286

266 measured respectively about 37 and 34 inches in diameter, and were making wood at the rate of 1 inch of diameter in about 2½ years. If this rate of growth is applied to the largest of the trees which Maundrell mentions that he saw upon Mount Lebanon, it would show them to be only about 350, or, at the most, 400 years old; and it is probable that this is somewhere about the limit of age which the Cedar trees attain, and not 3,000 years, as has been asserted.

The rapid growth of the Cedar tree is borne out by the careful examination of some logs brought from Honduras, which were found to exhibit a rate of growth even quicker than those mentioned, the concentric rings showing that 1 inch of wood diameter was made in rather less than two years.

We know very little of the quality of the timber of the Cedar of Lebanon; it is too scarce to find its way in any quantity into the markets of this country.

THE CUBA, HONDURAS, AND MEXICAN CEDARS

are varieties of the Cedrela odorata, but in their nature and condition of growth are very different from the Abies Cedrus of Lebanon, which flourishes best with plenty of room and in open grounds, whilst those of the West Indies and Central America appear to prefer a closer situation, and attain the greatest perfection in the forests. Many of these are very fine trees, capable of yielding well-squared logs of timber, 12 to 24 inches on the side by 18 to 40 feet in length, and even these dimensions are occasionally exceeded. Smaller timber is brought in considerable quantities into the market, the whole finding a ready sale among cabinet-makers and with those engaged in the manufacture of cigar-boxes and similar articles.