FOREIGN NOTICES. 



northern Persia, where there are very lofty mountaia ehaina Btill our knowledge of that 

 country and of Armenia and Caucasus, is too limited to warrant our assertiiif^ liiat the Cedar does 

 not grow there, wliile in Taurus we know that tlie Cetlar of Lebanon is indigenous. 



"It outrht also to be borne in mind that among the trees which accompany the Deodar in 

 northern India, there is a considerable number of European species. The Yew is plentiful in all 

 parts of the Himalaya, and the common Juniper, though more Alpine, has nearly as wide a range. 

 The tree Juniper of India, too (/. excclsa), extends into western Asia, so that at least three species 

 of Conifera are common to that and the Himalaya. The Walnut, which is one of the commonest 

 forest trees all along the chain of northern India, is also indigenous in the Caucasian provinces, 

 and a species of Oak extends from Spain, through western Asia, Persia, and Affghanistan, into 

 the drier parts of the western Himalaya. The common Berberry may be cited as another 

 instance of the extension of European species far East, and the list of trees and shrubs might, if 

 space permitted, be considerably increased, while the number of herbaceous plants which are 

 common to Europe and the mountains of India is very great." — 2\ T. in Gardeners' Chronicle. 



[This very able statement of the botanical argnments that may be employed to Bhow the identity 

 of the Deodar and Cedar of Lebanon as species, has been communicated to us by an experienced 

 Indian friend, well acquainted with the former tree on its native mountains. The arguments 

 that a botanist can produce in support of the ojnnion that the Cedar of Lebanon and the Deodar 

 are varieties of one common species have been ably stated by our correspondent, who has, 

 indeed, exhausted the subject in the form in which he has pnt it. But here, as in so many 

 other cases, the question resolves itself into one of words. If it is maintained that these trees 

 hixve descended from one common stock, in the lapse of ages, and are therefore specifically the 

 same, we have nothing to object Tlie negro .and the white, the game cock and the jungle fowl, 

 the lapdog and the bloodhound — the dog himself, indeed, and the wolf — have all, in turn, been 

 pronounced by competent authority to be of identical origin ; and we are very far from ques- 

 tioning the soundness of such opinions. The same kind of reasoning which justifies such 

 conclusions would undoubtedly lead irresistibly to the inference that the Scotch Hose, the Dog 

 Rose, and the Gallic Rose, nay, even the China Rose itself, have a common origin; for are they 

 not traceable the one into the other by insensible gradations and innumerable intermediate forms ? 



But although a wolf may be specifically the same as a Maltese spaniel, no one would, we 

 imagine, feel inclined to confound the two, or to consider them strictly allied, except from a 

 theoretical point of view. Such, we conceive, is the manner in which the Deodar question must 

 be practically considered. Botanists may trace unsuspected resemblances ; the differences by 

 which the plants are popularly separated may be shown to be trifling and unimportant in the eye 

 of pure science, but the fact remains tliat great dififcrences do exist; and if they are permanent 

 in a general sense, then the distinction of the two is unafl"ected. Let us see what counter-proofs 

 can be produced in support of the essential (we will not say specific) differences of these two trees. 



In the fii-st place it is to be observed, that if the Cedar of Lebanon and the Deodar ai'e sown 

 in mixture, the seedlings are unmistakeably different. One is green, stiff, and erect ; the other 

 is glaucous and drooping. No one, we believe, ever saw a Cedar of Lebanon with its seedling 

 stem turned downwards; no one a Deodar in any other state. This, then, is not a mere difference 

 of color, but of physical constit tion. The two are as distinct, ad incunabilis, as negro and Cau- 

 casian infants. 



In advanced age, the difference is preserved ; the Cedar of Lebanon may become glaucous, but 

 it does not droop; the Deodar may become green, but it will not straighten its leader; the one is 

 always stiff and massive, tie other light and graceful. 



According to Dr. Poyle, the wood of the Deodar is particularly valued for its durability; and 

 Major Madden- quotes Baron Charles Hugel as one of those who eulogise " the incorruptible 

 Himalayan Cedar, the invaluable Deodar." Without insisting too much upon these expressions, 

 it is fair to remark th.-it they are in no way applicable to the timber of the Cedar of Lebanon, 

 which is soft and of little value in this country ; Major Madden says that even on its native 

 mountains it affords timber, little if at all superior to the course, soft, warping wood of Englisli 

 specimens. Pococke, who saw the Cedars on Lebanon itself in l74t-5, asserts thiit their wood 



