lour inches apart. Should the weather be dry, it is advisable to give them shade and moisture until
Ihey have taken root. After having been two years in the beds, they must be transferred to the
nursery, where they may remain until the place of their final destination be ready. Whilst the young
cedars are in the nursery, and indeed after having been planted out, many will hare a tendency to droop,
probably in their leading shoot. As soon as this is perceived, an upright stake should be driven into
the ground, and the shoots tied to it with matting, to keep them upright. It may not be amiss also,
in some instances, to lighten the head by cutting off the extremities of some few of the large branches'
When the trees have been finally transplanted however, they should be in general left to nature! Not
a knife nor a hatchet should be brought near the old part of the branches, for the lopping the thick
wood will not only retard their growth, but injure their beauty. The Cedar is extremely tardy in its
lnciease of size, even under the most favourable circumstances, so that the greatest caution oiudit to be
observed in the rearing it. The epithet of lofty, commonly given to the Cedar, is by no means applicable,
since from the accounts given of those which still remain on Mount Lebanon, they are not very
ng , t rough their branches spread widely. The last-mentioned circumstance warrants the fine allusion of
the Psalm,st, in describing a prosperous people. « They shall spread their branches (says he) like the
c ar tiec. the few trees of this species still standing on Lebanon, seven, we are told by Billardiere
are of amazing size. The trunk of the largest is nine feet in diameter. They are all preserved with
c a lif Hi T ’ T r r ) the t J ° f thC tranSfigUration’ a S0lemn festiyal !s « C r a t e d on the mount,
‘ lied the Feast o f Cedars. The memoirs of the Levant missionaries state that the Patriarch officiates
pontifically on this devout occasion, and threatens with ecclesiastical punishment those who may presume
to diminish or hurt the Cedars that grow on the consecrated spot
The diuturnity of the Cedar we frequently find alluded to. The wood of this famous Lee has been
supposed to preserve books much better than any other material; hence the expression “ Cedro dianus"
was considered as one of the highest compliments that could be bestowed on a literary performance ’
ie wood was not liable to be corroded by insects, on which account it was much used in ancient
mes tor coffins and chips of it were considered as destructive to moths and worms. It is recorded
hat in the temple of Apollo, at Utica, was found Cedar wood nearly two thousand years old and
T gUn mn m SPaln’ ln an oratory consecrated to Diana, two hundred years before the destruction of
Troy, a beam was discovered which has since been removed to Zante.* destruction of
But m the relation of the properties assigned to this tree, I think with Professor Martyn there is
to d ife em f Z I A t Inf7 th’ the CCdal' ° - Leban° ‘1 bdng ° ftetl COnf° to Merent genera A t least the accounts given by the ancients of the ,llnodnegd dWuirtaht itornee os fw thhiecihr ^Coodna,g
veiy 1, accord with the species now under consideration, whose wood is no more than a very in f i f
kind of deal, with little or no smell, and of a soft texture, evidently of short duration. S ~
ever or, ! •“ P°SSeSS1° n ° f Slr JosePh Banks- ™ de of the Hillingdon Cedar, one of the largest that
t d e w i l l t 11S country. The word Cedrus seems in many cases to be ambiguously used by Greek
Which“ l f aPP7 7 n general mUCh bCtter t0 ^ to the ^ r e s su s kori.onU.lis of Miller,
inch 1 have no doubt is a distinct species from C. sempervirens of Linmeus. Perhaps it may not be
b L uZ L ^ t0 mentl0n thatthe w00d used fOT black-lead pencils is not Pinus Cedncs but Juniperus
w T ^ jZ c T ’1:1T - l“ »— * >» *. “td“ rr - - r™«;“ “b“ sir “fc “• -
’ Evelyns Sylva, 315.