200 riNus; OR 



No. 36. PiNUS LONGi FOLIA, Roxburgh, the Long-leaved Pine. 

 Syn. Pinus Serenagensis, Madden. 



Leaves, in threes, very slender, three- edged, of a bright, 

 glossy green, finely serrated on the edges, and rather pendulous, 

 or curved backwards on the young trees, from twelve to four- 

 teen inches long, thickly set on the gross branches, particularly 

 towards the ends and upper parts of the plant ; sheaths, one 

 inch and a quarter long, and permanent ; male flowers produced 

 in long, close clusters of many together at the ends of the 

 branches, round at first, but elongated as they open and blossom 

 in March. Cones, either singly or in clusters, varying from 

 three to five in number, in regular whorls, five inches long, and 

 two and a half or three inches in circumference near the 

 base, more or less ovate, very smooth, glossy, and hard. Scales, 

 much thickened at the ends, and Avith a large, thick, hooked 

 beak, one inch and a quarter wide in 'the larger ones, but 

 more recurved and smaller towards the base, and full of resin- 

 ous matter. Seeds, large, with rather a long, narrow wing one 

 inch and a half long, and eaten by the hill people in India. 



This Pine grows from 40 to 100 feet high, and abounds in 

 all the lower and outer ranges of the Himalayas, from Bootan 

 to Affghan. Dr. Griffith describes it as descending in Bhotan 

 to the low elevation of 1,800 to 2,000 feet above the sea, while 

 on ranges between the Jumna and Sutlej, it is abundant at 

 2,500 feet to 3,000 feet of elevation, and finally it becoines 

 stunted, and disappears at Simla, at an elevation of 7jOOO feet, 

 but occurs in greatest perfection and abundance in Kamaoon 

 and Gurhwal, north of the Pindur, from 2,500 to 7,000 feet of 

 elevation, and which places seem little else than one great forest 

 of the Cheer Pine. It has a rough bark, divided by deep 

 fissures into large and longish plates, and the stems of the larger 

 trees are about twelve feet in girth, with a clear stem forty or 

 fifty feet from the ground, and with an exceedingly picturesque 

 head, very irregular in outline ; the branches are irregularly 

 and thinly scattered along the stem. A large quantity of tar and 

 turpentine is extracted from the wood in India ; and Major 

 Madden relates a curious phenomenon yet unaccounted for. 



