THE PINE. 51 



India; and the following extract of a letter from this 

 amiable prelate, addressed to his Lordship, giving an 

 account of the pines of the Himalaya mountains, 

 will show the solicitude with which he discharged his 

 trust : 



" A visit which I paid to those glorious mountains, 

 in November and December last, was unfortunately 

 too much limited by the short time at my disposal, 

 and by the advanced season, to admit of my pene- 

 trating far into their recesses; nor am I so fortunate 

 as to be able to examine their productions with the 

 eye of a botanist. But, though the woods are very 

 noble, and the general scenery possesses a degree of 

 magnificence such as I had never before either seen 

 or (I may say) imagined, the species of pine which I 

 was able to distinguish were not numerous. The 

 most common is a tall and stately, but brittle, fir, in 

 its general character not unlike the Scottish, but with 

 a more branching head, which, in some degree, re- 

 sembles that of the Italian pine. Another, and of 

 less frequent occurrence, is a splendid tree, with 

 gigantic arms and dark narrow leaves, which is ac- 

 counted sacred, and chiefly seen in the neighbourhood 

 of ancient Hindqo temples, and which struck my 

 unscientific eye as very nearly resembling the cedar of 

 Lebanon. But these I found flourishing at near 

 nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, and 

 where the frost was as severe at night as is usually 

 met with at the same season in England. But be- 

 tween this, which was the greatest height that I 

 climbed, and the limit of perpetual snow, there is 

 doubtless ample space for many other species of 

 plants, to some of which a Dropmore winter must be 

 a season of vernal mildness." 



The pines of the Himalaya mountains were found 

 at the height of nine thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea. The elevation at which the pine grows in 



