1236 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



cylindrical. Stamens sub-cylindrical, biloeular, with triangular, 

 terminal, oblique scale. Female cones at first sessile, solitary, of 

 a cylindrical form, of a pea-green colour, covered with a delicate, 

 velvety, bluish bloom. As they advance in growth, they stand 

 erect and solitary in a small peduncle on the upper side of 

 the branches and become brown. They are oval, very obtuse, 

 2-5in. long, l-2£in. diam. In their early green stage, most 

 deliciously fragrant. Scales very broad, transversely oblong, 

 flat, fan-shaped, ferruginous, entire, smooth and thin at the 

 edges and somewhat membranaceous. Seeds unequal, somewhat 

 wedge-shaped, with a large, obovate-membranous, brown wing, 

 expanding suddenly on the thinner side, immediately beyond 

 the seed. The majority of male catkins and female flowers 

 are on separate trees. But a considerable number of trees also 

 produce both male and female flowers on the same individuals. 

 The usual girth is from 24-30ft., at times 33-36ft., 4 or 5ft. 

 above the ground. Height 160-180ft , or even 200ft. (Vol. III. 

 P. 225, Pinetum Britannicum. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh 

 and London, 1884.) 



Sir Joseph Hooker says (Natural History Review, 1862, p. 17). 

 " It is evident that the distinctions between Cedrus Deodara, 

 Cedrus Libani and Cedrus Atlantica are so trifling and so far 

 within the proved limits of variation of conifera plants that 

 it may reasonably be assumed that all originally sprang from 

 one. It should be added that there are no other distinctions 

 whatever between them of bark, wood, leaves, male cones, 

 anthers or the structure of these, nor in the mode of germination 

 or duration ; the girth they attain or their hardiness (the 

 assumed distinctive characters between the Deodar and Lebanon 

 Cedar that were formed on the form of the cones\ the falling 

 away of their scales, the shape of the leaf in section, the wood, 

 its odour and durability having all been satisfactorily disproved 

 long ago. * * * *. Though the differences in the scales 

 and seeds of Deodara and Libani are very marked, they vary 

 much, many forms of each overlap, and further transitions 

 between the most dissimilar may be established by intercalation 

 of seeds and scales from C. Atlantica My own impression 



