166 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
slender drooping cones, and elegant arching foliage. It is said
that the needles change their position according to the weather
or the season. On a warm summer day the leaves will be fully
separated; in wet weather and in winter they are more parallel
and drooping. The shorter needles and downy young shoots
distinguish the Weymouth Pine from Pinus excelsa, the Bhotan
Pine, a noble tree from the Himalayas.
The Cedar of Lebanon, the Deodar and the Atlantic Cedar
are probably only local forms of one species. As in the pines,
the needles are arranged on both long and short shoots, or "spurs"
as gardeners call them; the latter are stout and persistent, and
the needles fall off separately.
Cedrus Libani is found wild only on the arid slopes of the Leban-
on and Taurus mountains. It is said that no young trees are
growing up, so that these ancient and gnarled giants will eventu-
ally disappear from their native land, and Cedars of Lebanon
will be found only in gardens. When grown crowded in groups,
the trunks are tall and erect as in the Deodar. Cedars were first
introduced into England in the reign of Charles II, when in 1670
the Enfield cedar was planted. Seven-year old seedlings from
this tree were planted on the lawns at Bayfordbury, near Hert-
ford, in 1765, and at least seven of them are fine old trees at the
present time. Careful measurements have been taken periodi-
cally since 1822, which prove that one, the largest, has probably
doubled in girth during the last hundred years. In 1822, the
girth at five feet was 14 feet, 5 inches; in 1904 it was 27 feet,
3 inches. Almost all the old gardens in our neighbourhood had
cedars, some of which still survive, and are probably over 100
years old, but are struggling on with thick deposits of London
smoke. Plate XL is from a photograph taken about 1858 of a
fine Cedar in my grandfather s garden at Upton House.
Cedrus Deodara, the Tree of God, as its Hindustani name
"Devadara" means, flourishes in the Himalayas from an alti-
tude of 5,000 to 10,000 feet, attaining perfection where for half
the year its boughs are covered with snow. It there attains a
height of from 150 to 200 feet, and a girth sometimes of 30
feet. The seasoned timber of the Deodar is the finest of its
class in the world, and is never attacked by insects. Cedar wood
and its resin, cedar-oil, have had a well deserved fame for thous-
ands of years. The Deodar has great powers of reproduction,