THE CHIEF TIMBER-TREES OF INDIA. II5 
are able to assert themselves against this annual dying down 
of the shoot. The finest growth of the sal is attained near 
the foot of the Nepal hills, where trees grow to between 100 
and 150 feet high, with a clear stem of 60 to 80 feet and 
a girth of 20 to 25 feet. Climate and soil of course cause 
considerable variations in the rate of growth of this as of other 
trees; but it has been found that it usually takes from 80 to 
Ioo years to reach a girth of 6 feet, and consequently a 
rotation of about 100 to 120 years has been adopted in the 
forest working-plans. Protection against fire, and improvement- 
fellings to replace badly-grown stems by those growing under 
more favourable circumstances and to reduce the proportion of 
inferior species throughout the crop, are the chief measures taken 
by the Forest Department to preserve and increase this very valu- 
able timber; and no doubt the effect of these measures will be 
to largely increase the available supply for future generations. 
The Deopar, or ‘‘Gop’s TREE” (Cedrus Libani var. Deodara), 
the most important and valuable of the northern Indian timbers, 
furnishes a light, moderately hard, strongly scented and oily 
wood of a pale yellowish-brown colour. It is chiefly to be 
found in the western Himalayan regions, at an elevation of 
about 6000 to 8000 feet, whence it extends to the mountains 
of Afghanistan. Except in the case of sacred groves around 
temples, and in some parts of Kumaon, the Punjab, and 
Kashmir, it is rarely to be found growing gregariously and 
forming pure forest; because it usually occurs in family groups 
interspersed among its characteristic associates, the Himalayan 
spruce (Picea Morinda), the blue pine (Pinus excelsa), three 
kinds of Himalayan oaks, and sometimes the Himalayan 
silver fir (Abies Pindrow), cypress and yew, and the long-leaved 
pine (P. dongifolia) at lower elevations. But, besides these more 
frequent kinds of trees, the deodar forests contain a rich variety 
in the Indian birch, poplar, horse-chestnut, elm, hazel, maple, 
cherry, holly and rhododendron, together with an undergrowth 
of shrubs closely related to many kinds common in different 
parts of Europe. Two well-marked varieties of deodar grow in 
those forests, which are said to run true to seed. One of these 
has a dark green, and the other a silvery foliage; but the 
latter is comparatively infrequent, and is chiefly to be found 
at the foot of low-lying ravines. The deodar has naturally 
a spreading and very beautiful habit of growth, and unless this 
