THE TRUE PINES. 



299 



No. 66. PiNUS EXCELSA, WalUch, the Lofty Bhotan Pine. 



Syn, Pinus Dicksonii, Hort. 

 Chylla, Loddiges. 

 pendula, Griffith. 

 Strobus excelsa, Loudon. 

 „ 'Nepalensis, Hort. 

 Strobus, Hamilton, not Linnceus. 

 Indica, Manetti. 



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 to- 

 gether 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 

 foot-stalk 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 im- 

 bricated, 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 wings 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 6000 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 6000 to 8000 feet of elevation, and as high as 11,500 



