232 



OBSERVATIONS OX HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



able extent at Lodihana, Feerozpoor, and other towns on the 

 Sutluj, and other rivers of the Punjab, down which it is floated 

 from the mountains, but often of bad quality, and so extremely 

 knotty as to possess little strength : but better materials are not 

 procurable. In Kumaoon extremely fine clean planks may be 

 purchased to any extent, and at a very moderate rate. 



On his journey to Manusarawur, Captain H. Strachey observed 

 the importation of pine timber across the Himalayan Passes into 

 Tibet,* naturally destitute of all arborescent vegetation ; a fact 

 which must be admitted to modify the justness of the observa- 

 tion, that nature has distributed her most inflammable materials 

 to the coldest regions of our globe. The fuel of Tibet, brush- 

 wood only, is not derived from the Coniferous trees, but from 

 Astragalus and Caragana of the Leguminosce, and from Myri- 

 caricE of the Tamariscinew. 



Pinus longifolia, with straight fibre, is distinguished in Ku- 

 maoon by the term Sapin, which is equivalent to the Sanscrit 

 Surul, straight, a singular coincidence with the French Sapin, 

 as Kosee, sl legume, with ecosse. Such odd affinities in sound 

 and sense are, however, more numerous than many imagine ; 

 thus our Birch seems identical with the Russian Bereza, and 

 the Sanscrit Bhoorjja : the last form still vernacular in Cliumba, 

 &c. ; but the etymology — " firm in the earth," — is less probable 

 than the allusion to its bark, perhaps conveyed in the German 

 Birke. The coincidence of the Tibetan Ttmshing, with the 

 German Tanne, must be accidental : the latter being allied to 

 tenuis, and thus to the modern " needle trees " of the same 

 people. 



The cones of Pinus longifolia open spontaneously in April and 

 May ; the tree is deciduous (nearly) in May and June, and has 

 then a shabby appearance, assuming a rusty colour, which, as 

 well as the reddish-brown matting of the pirol or fallen leaves, 

 may be recognized at a great distance. The turpentine is called 

 leesha in Kumaoon. Ink is made in Sikhim from the charcoal 

 of the burnt leaves, mixed with rice-water. — {Dr. Hooker.) 

 The Cheer pine flourishes at Meerutt, Kurnal, Seharunpoor, &c, 

 but the leaves droop considerably ; and hence it is that Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, describing the tree from Calcutta-grown specimens, 

 represents them with this position : but in the more bracing air 

 of their native mountains they are certainly rather erect than 

 pendulous. 



* From the same traveller I learn, that chips of Pinus (excelsa ?) are 

 imported from Poldar to Zanskar of Ludakh, where they are used for 

 candles, and called Lashi or Chanshing, i. e., night- wood. So in Nepal, 

 the knots of this, or P. longifolia, are cut into slips for torches, called 

 Diyaloo. 



