240 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



layan pines, for he tells us, that " in Macedonia, et Arcadia, 

 circaque Elin, permutant nomina, nec constat auctoribus quod 

 cuique generi attributant : nos ista Romano discernimus jwc/iWo." 

 The Eoman interpretation of another set of Greek words has 

 since deluged Europe with blood ; and so difficult is it perma- 

 nently to connect names and things, that the Pinus sylvestris 

 of the Roman naturalist is our Pinaster, our sylvestris being his 

 Pityada; by Pinus, simply, he always intends P. pinea, the 

 stone-pine, the Pitiis of the Greeks, from Pitta, pitch. By 

 restricting the term " fir " to the spruces, and " pine " to sylves- 

 tris, we are ourselves forsaking the analogies of our own language, 

 for the German Fohre, Fuhre, the origin of our word, is P. 

 sylvestris, allied perhaps to pur, fire, fyc. The etymology of the 

 terms He, Rai, Row, Roliow, so generally applied to the Hima- 

 layan spruce, may be sought rather than found in the Sanscrit 

 rohi, a tree : ruh, to grow as a seed : ri, to move : ru, reh, to 

 sound : or perhaps, considering the form of the tree, and the 

 name " weeping-fir," which that form suggested to our early 

 travellers, the root roo, to weep, may be accepted as a plausible 

 derivation. 



Loudon {Arboretum Britannicum) has noticed and explained 

 the errors of the Penny Cyclopaedia, in its description of Abies 

 Smithiana, which were remarked in my original paper, p. 47 : 

 he says, " some confusion in the description of this species in the 

 Penny Cyclopaedia has resulted from the cones in Dr. Wallich's 

 figure being placed upright, which, if they had been actually so, 

 would have constituted it a Picea, and accordingly Dr. Lindley 

 calls it Indian silver fir." Mr. Loudon was himself not exactly 

 correct in describing the leaves " straight they are somewhat 

 curved ; " sub-incurva," Wallich, whose plate (246) rather ex- 

 aggerates their thickness. 



Abies Smithiana flowers (Busehur) in April, with solitary 

 strobili ; and immediately afterwards exhibits numerous cones, 

 rapidly enlarging to a few inches in length ; and, from the bud- 

 like scales remaining at the base, having every appearance of 

 being just developed ; in this case the seeds only require 7 or 8 

 months to ripen, a fact which may be in some way connected 

 with the very perishable nature of the timber. Nevertheless, 

 this rapidity of fructification is still more decided iu Quercus 

 semecarpifolia, which flowers in April, May, and matures its 

 fruit in July, August, when the beautiful large globular acorns 

 fall and germinate at once ; yet the Khursoo timber is considered 

 excellent, and the name, which is universal in the Himalaya, 

 appears taken from its being used in ploughs. 



Abies excelsa, the Norway spruce, flowers in May, June, and 

 though the seeds naturally do not fall till next spring, Loudon 



