236 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



tains near Nijrow, in the Kohistan of Kabul, are covered with 

 Chulghozeh pine, and beyond this point I know no record of its 

 having been observed. Enough is shown to prove that Dr. 

 HofFmeister's limitation, " grows on the Sutluj only," is to be 

 understood solely of the British Himalaya; and even then with 

 the reservation of the Neetee examples. He fixes its vegetational 

 limits at 5,800 and 9,400 feet, the last apparently from a single 

 observation near Mebur, on the north side of the Harung Pass. 

 Capt. A. Gerard states its highest limit on a southern exposure 

 of the inner Himalaya (near Murung) to be 10,849 feet, but 

 ( Tours of Lloyd and the Gerards, p. 264) in another place he 

 expressly fixes it as high as 12,300. This locality, near Soong- 

 num, is no doubt its extreme limit ; the usual range he states 

 (p. 273) to lie between 5,500 and 10,800 feet. It is very gene- 

 rally associated with Cedrus Deodara. 



Pinus Gerardiana, on the right or north bank of the Sutluj, 

 does not extend to the west of Meeroo ; on the south it is first 

 met with a few miles above Wangtoo bridge, occurring abun- 

 dantly on the rocks and cliffs from Melum (Melung of the map) 

 upwards, and along the course of the Buspa, nearly to Sungla ; 

 the inferior limit agreeing with that assigned by Dr. Hoffmeister. 

 When young, and on a tolerable soil, the Rhee grows in a 

 conical form, pretty much with the habit of P. longifolia, to the 

 height of about 50 feet, furnished with numerous horizontal 

 branches nearly to the ground : but in the situations which it 

 best loves, rocks and bleak-riven crags, the boughs become 

 excessively crooked, and are twisted in every direction. The 

 exterior bark is of a silvery grey, falling off in large flakes, and 

 never, as Dr. H. observes, transforms itself into the rough outer 

 coating of the other pines ; the inner layers, thus disclosed, are 

 at first green and smooth like the epidermis. The foliage is of a 

 blackish-green ; the leaves, in bundles of three, with deciduous 

 sheaths, are acute, flattened, from 4 to 6 inches long. The 

 scales of the cone have the ends thickened, are broader than 

 those of P. lo?igifolia, with a less abrupt beak, and are without 

 the boss at its top which marks that species. In the warmer 

 sites, the seed ripens by the end of September, but higher up, 

 not till October; the cones of last season still hanging on the 

 brandies. It arrives at Simlah for sale in the latter half of 

 November. 



" Sunoubur Sukkur" supposed (p. 43) to be equivalent to 

 "Pistacio Pine" is correctly written Sunoubur Sughar, and sig- 

 nifies " Lesser Pine," an apt name enough for P. Gerardiana, 

 the stature of which probably never much exceeds 50 feet. 



Pinus Cembra, p. 45. Erman (Travels in Siberia, ii. 512) 

 remarks the curious fact, that this native of Switzerland re- 



