The Cedar is frequently found growing in churchyards, beside the Yew tree, and a dark, gloomy tree it is. The trunk is covered with a thick rough bark of a pale greenish brown colour, but on the branches this bark is thin and flaky. The Cedar grows very slowly. The tree may be a hundred years old before it produces any seeds, though you sometimes find seedless cones on Cedars that are twenty-five to thirty years old.
The leaves (2) are evergreen, and usually remain on the twigs for four or five years. They grow in tufts, like those of the Larch, on the upper side of the twig; but each leaf is needle-shaped, as in the Scotch Pine, and is much harder than the soft Larch leaves. In colour they are a dark bluey green.
The Cedar has two kinds of flowers. Those that bear the stamens (3) appear at the end of short, stunted little twigs which have taken many years to grow. The stamens are in slender catkins, about two inches long, and are a pale reddish yellow colour.
The seed flowers (4) grow in cones, and the Cedar of Lebanon has very curious cones. They grow in pairs, and are like fat green eggs, sitting upright on the branch, with the blunt end uppermost. These cones look quite solid, because the scales are so tightly pressed together. You can scarcely see where one begins and the other ends. It takes two or three years before these scales unclose, and during that time the cones (5) become a rich, dark purple. When the scales unclose, the three-cornered seeds are blown out by the wind, and each seed is furnished with a wing to float it away on the air. The Cedar cones remain on the tree several years after all their seeds have fallen.
The timber of the Cedars grown in this country is of little value; the tree is usually planted for ornament. But in warmer lands, where there are large forests of mighty Cedar trees, the wood is sold for a great deal of money.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.