There are only two species in this genus, the Cedar of Lebanon (_Cedrus Libani_), and the Deodar (_C. Deodara_). The male catkins of the Cedar of Lebanon are produced singly, and each scale has a large crest. The cones are ovate, and the scales, which are very short and broad, fall with the seeds, in the same manner as those of the Silver Fir. The leaves resemble those of the Larch, but they are not deciduous. The male and female catkins are very often on different plants; and the trees attain a considerable age before they produce perfect seeds. The Cedar is remarkable for the enormous size of its branches, and for the shelf-like character they assume. The tree in a living state lasts several centuries, but the wood is of a very coarse grain and not at all durable; and though the resin appears so abundant in the cones as to ooze through the scales, there is so little in the trunk that it is never used for turpentine.
The Deodar Cedar (_C. Deodara_) closely resembles the common Cedar in its catkins and cones, but the foliage is of a beautiful glaucous green, and the leaves are so much longer as to give a peculiarly graceful character to the tree. The wood is remarkably durable, very fragrant, and of an extremely fine grain, taking so bright a polish, that a table which Mr. Lambert had of it in his drawing-room has been compared to a slab of brown agate. The trunk abounds in resin, and it produces in India a great quantity of fluid turpentine, which though it is of rather a coarse quality, is much used by the natives; pitch and tar are also produced by charring the wood. The tree on the Himalayas grows above 150 feet high, with a trunk 30 feet or more in circumference, and it is said to live to a great age. It was only introduced into Britain in 1822, but there are numerous specimens of it in different parts of the kingdom, all of which appear quite hardy.
_Araucaria imbricata_, the only hardy species, is a very singular tree. The trunk is quite straight, with a strong leading shoot, and whorls of branches of great length, and far apart from each other, covered closely with scale-like leaves. These large horizontal arms, clothed with closely imbricated leaves, resemble, in the young trees, snakes partly coiled round the trunk, and stretching out their long, slender, flexible bodies in quest of prey. The male and female flowers are on different trees. The male catkins are cone-shaped, the scales serving as filaments to the anthers produced at their base. The cone is round and very large, with numerous wedge-shaped scales, and large eatable seeds or nuts, which have each a short, callous, marginal wing. The trunk is covered with a very thick corky bark; the wood is white, finely grained, and durable. The trees when wounded yield a milky juice, which hardens into a fine yellow resin; and the kernel of the nut, which is as large as an almond, is used by the Indians as an important article of food. The tree is a native of the Andes of Peru, and when first introduced it was called the Chilian Pine. It has now become quite common in this country, and the Earl of Harrington has planted an avenue with it at Elvaston Castle.