20 ABIES, OR 



7000 to 12,000 feet, and is not only a very superb, but very 

 graceful tree ; the boughs ascend a little in the young trees, 

 but are horizontal in the older ones, and from these the branch- 

 lets and smaller twigs droop in the most graceful manner. It 

 prefers a north aspect, and attains a great height in favour- 

 able situations, frequently from 100 to 150 feet high. Capt. 

 Hodgson measured a fallen tree in 1830, and found the length 

 169 feet. 



This Fir is very common above the Deodar forests, on the 

 mountains of Cashmere, and stretches as far as Gilgit, its most 

 northern habitat as yet ascertained ; Dr. Griffith found it as 

 far to the eastward as Bhotan, at elevations varying from j 

 7500 to 10,500 feet, a large and handsome tree. In the Hima- 

 layas it is the most graceful Fir met with, on account of its 

 long drooping branchlets and great dimensions, which some- 

 times measure from 18 to 20 feet in girth, four feet from the 

 earth's surface, and towers 150 feet or more into the heavens ; 

 but its wood is soft, open grained, and said, when converted 

 into boats, not to last more than five or six years. 



In the Himalayas this Fir is called " Morinda " (Nectar, or 

 honey of flowers), on account of the resinous drops or tears 

 found on the young cones and other parts of the tree, resem- 

 bling honey. The mountaineers about Simla call it " Rai," 

 " Re," " Rhai," and "Ray-ung;" and the people of Gurhwal, 

 " Realla," " Rhei," and " Rayha," all variations in their dialects 

 for Fir-tree, Prickly Fir, and Wood Pine, It is also called by 

 the same people, " Roo," " Roo-ee," and " Row ;" all signifying 

 to weep or shed tears ; either on account of its resinous drops, 

 or the drooping appearance of the full-grown trees. Dr. Royle's 

 barbarous local name, " Khutrow," should either be " Kood- 

 row " (weeping fir), or " Koodrai " (prickly fir), its true verna- 

 cular names about Simla, and of which Dr. Griffith's tem- 

 porary botanical one, spinulosa, is a translation. In the 

 Simla jurisdiction it is styled " Row," and " Rai," and in the J 

 Kohistan of the Punjab, and in Kooloo, " Koodrow ;" but in 

 Kamaon and Gurhwal, u Morinda," and " Koodrai," are its 

 more common appellations. 



