222 piNUS ; OR 



No. 65. PiNUS EXCELSA, Wallich, the Lofty Bhotan Pine. 

 Syn. Pinus Dicksonii, Hort. 

 „ „ Chylla, Loddiges. 

 „ ,, pendula, Griffith. 

 „ „ Strobus excelsa, Loudon. 

 „ „ „ Nepalensis, Hort. 



„ „ Strobus, Hamilton. 



Leaves, in fives, very long, three-edged, very glaucous on 

 the inner faces, bluish green, and rounded on the outer one ; 

 from six to eight inches long, very slender, and mostly drooping. 

 Sheaths, short at first, but soon rolling up, and finally falling 

 off. Branches, in regular whorls and spreading, those near the 

 bottom reflected, while the upper ones are more or less ascend- 

 ing ; branchlets, slender, long, and spreading ; male flowers, in 

 dense clusters. Cones, solitary, or sometimes two or three 

 together round the leading shoots, of a cylindrical or somewhat 

 conical shape, from six to nine inches long, and two inches 

 broad near the base, tapering towards the point, and with a 

 footstalk nearly one inch long ; when young of a pea-green 

 colour, and somewhat erect, but when fully grown completely 

 pendulous, and of a pale brown colour, full of resinous matter 

 in the shape of transparent drops. Scales, thickened at the 

 ends, but without any extended or curled points, loosely imbri- 

 cated, oval, blunt-pointed, thin, smooth, and nearly all of a size, 

 being one inch and a quarter long, and about one inch in 

 breadth. Seeds, rather small, with a wing one inch and a quarter 

 long. 



A large tree, principally found in Nepal, where it prefers the 

 more open and cheerful aspects of the mountains. In Bhotan 

 it forms large and beautiful woods on the southern slopes, at an 

 elevation of from 6,000 to 10,000 feet, but stunted at the last 

 elevation. It is not found in Sikkim, but is common at Simla 

 on warm aspects, and is found in abundance all over the inte- 

 rior from 6,000 to 8,000 feet of elevation, and as high as 11,500 

 feet in Kamaoon, occurring above' the Deodar. In Nepal it 

 attains an immense height, some trees being 150 feet high near 



