224 THE BOOK OF EVERGREENS. 



glaucous bloom. Branches, spreading and drooping. 

 Cones, from 4 to 5 inches long, ovate, obtuse, very resin- 

 ous, rich-purple when young, dark-brown at maturity; 

 scales, closely appressed, smooth, thin, entire, broad, and 

 separating from the axis at maturity. Seeds, regularly 

 wedge-shaped, soft, with a large, bright brown wing. 



Gordon, in the supplement to his Pinetum, says : " It 

 has net yet been found in a natural state either in Eastern 

 Nepal or Sikkam, although these gigantic sons of snow 

 fringe the bare rocks, and fix their roots Avhere there ap- 

 pears to be very little soil, on the lofty passes from Nepal 

 to Cashmere ; and, according to Capt. Pemberton, (in his 

 Report on the Eastern Frontier,) the most southern point 

 to which the Deodar hns yet been traced is the summit 

 of the lofty ranges immediately west of Munepoor, an in- 

 teresting region, which, with the Singfo Mountains, south- 

 east of Assam, carry the zone of perpetual snow farthest 

 south in India. The Deodar also grows to extraordinary 

 dimensions on all the higher mountains throughout the 



O O 



western Himalayas, and occurs in vast forests in Kunawur, 

 Kumaoon, Kooloo, Mussoorie, and on the Chumbra range 

 in Kangara, at elevations varying from 6,000 to 12,000 

 feet. At Rashulah, in Kooloo, a forest exists with trees 

 from 18 to 24 feet in girth, at 4 feet from the ground ; and,' 

 according to Dr. Jameson, of t\vo trees, measured by him, 

 near Mulare, in Gurhwal, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, 

 one girthed 26 feet, at three feet from the ground, and the 

 . other 27 feet ; but, as a general rule, the finest trees are 

 always found growing on the north side of barren moun- 

 tains, on thin, poor soil, formed from the decomposition of 

 granite, gneiss, mica, or clay-slate." 



Capt. Johnson, in his Excursion to the Sources of the 

 Jumna, states that the peaks on the northern side of the 

 Boorung Pass were completely hidden by forests of gigan- 

 tic Deodars, some of which measured 33 feet in circum- 

 ference, and were from 60 to 70 feet without a branch. 



