230 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFEK8. 



nearly as much an extreme in one direction as 8,000 is in the 

 other, there can be no doubt of the tree being well established 

 at 2,500 feet. It appears spontaneously at that elevation, or 

 probably less, on the low range, corresponding to the Siwalik, 

 which separates the Kotah Doon from the plains of Rohilkhund. 



From Mr. Winterbottom I find, that though common outside 

 on the Kujawur hills, Pinus longifolia has not penetrated into 

 the valley of Kashmeer: knowing therefore the limit set by 

 Nature to its upward extension, one is surprised in the Personal 

 Narrative, and in the abstract of the flora of Dr. Hoffmeister's 

 Travels (pp. 360, 366, 405, 474, 510, 511, 512, of the English 

 translation), to find Pinus longifolia entered at the very limit of 

 forest on the Lamakaga, Harung, Nagkunda, and other passes, 

 associated with Abies Smithiana and Webbiana, Corylus Jacque- 

 montii, Syriyiga PJmodi, the shrubby Rhododendrons, and other 

 sure indices of great elevation. The mistake perhaps originated 

 in too implicit a reliance on the vernacular names, and in the 

 travellers not being aware that the same term Cheel is used, in 

 different districts, both for P. longifolia and P. excelsa. But 

 that the latter is the tree intended would be manifest from the 

 " Journal " alone, to any one conversant in the Koonawur nomen- 

 clature : for (p. 363) he observes at Chitkool, " the Cheel pines, 

 here called Limm" Leem being P. excelsa amongst the Mon- 

 golian tribes of Koonawur, and in use down to Tibet, and Byans 

 of Kumaoon. The oversight is duly corrected in Appendix I., 

 addressed to Baron Humboldt, from Simlah, a few weeks prior 

 to the author's premature and lamented death on the field of 

 Feerozshuhur. 



At page 495 of the same work we read — " In the valley of 

 the Dudegaon (beyond Dhunpoor in Gurhwal), at an elevation 

 of 6,800 feet, again met with a tolerable thick forest of Pinus 

 longifolia ; and it is very remarkable, that the Chamcerops Mar- 

 tiana (Wallich) is here in immediate contact with it, some tall 

 stems of that palm being even scattered in among the pines." 



than it attains on the central and outer mountains, and clearly indicating 

 the severer climate of the interior, consequent on the vicinity and heavier 

 fall of snow. 



When Mr. Vigne (Travels in Kashmeer, ii. 215) mentions Pinus longi- 

 folia associated with juniper and black currant, near Suti Syn, in Baltistan, 

 we must suppose him to mean Pinus Gerardiana. I shall have occasion in 

 the sequel to remark on the frequent inaccuracy of this traveller in matters 

 botanical. Either he or Baron Hiigel, or both, speak of the lime tree as a 

 native of Kashmeer, probably alluding either to Grewia or to Celtis. 



Captain Hutton (Journal of a Trip through Koonawur, J. A. S., Nov., 

 1839, p. 908) mentions " Pinus excelsa or Cheel" on the ascent to Goura- 

 kotee ; but the tree here is P. longifolia, as correctly stated by Hoffmeister, 

 pp. 472-501. 



