254 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



but on the S.W. approach to the Roopin Pass, from Ras- 

 rung (or Surra), nearly down to Jaka, and all over the upper 

 Chang-shed, the silver fir is abundant and luxuriant, associated 

 with Pyrus foliolosa, Cerasus cor?iuta, Rosa Webbiana, Quercus 

 semecarpifolia, ISetula bhojpatra, Rhododendron campanulatum 

 (and in Kumaoon and S.E. Gurhwal, R. arboreum also), Syrinya 

 emodi ; in these last named districts, also, it may often be seen 

 graced with the splendid festoons of a very large and handsome 

 Clematis, near C. montana. 



Notwithstanding the whiteness of the under-face of its leaves, 

 the general effect of the Himalayan silver fir is exceedingly dark 

 and gloomy; more intense, indeed, than that of the cypress, 

 which, from any distance, it a good deal resembles. The form 

 has pretty nearly the tall columnar outline of the Pindrow, with 

 boughs somewhat less bushy and pendulous ; and, on the whole, 

 the long-leaved, thorough-going black Pindrow must be pro- 

 nounced the handsomer tree. 



Picea Webbiana has not hitherto, that I am aware of, been 

 identified beyond the Sutluj : but there is no reason to doubt its 

 presence in Kashmeer and Kafiristan. The largest specimen 

 measured on the Choor was 11 feet 8 inches round ; at Kolara 

 is one of 16 feet, both at the height of 5 feet, but on the moun 

 tains of N.W. Gurhwal, Dr. HofFmeister estimated several at 

 24 feet girth. In Sikhim at the same height Dr. Hooker 

 measured one of 30 feet girth. Captain Webb alludes to " the 

 silvery hue of the bark," but commonly it is rough and brown, 

 as in the older samples of Picea pectinata, the European silver 

 fir, where, after 50 or 60 years, the smooth, greyish-white layers 

 peel off, and fall in large scales. 



The young shoots of P. Webbiana appear in May, in which 

 month the tree flowers : the strobili are then of a purplish-red, 

 and when mature, probably assume the rich orange tint of 

 P. pectinata. The leaves are from three-quarters of an inch to 

 two inches long, with the double white band beneath, as in the 

 European species : the apex is rather more obtusely bidentate 

 than in the Pindrow, but a close examination is necessary to 

 perceive this character, which escaped Captain Webb, who 

 described the leaves as sharp-pointed : and indeed the amount of 

 difference, though apparently constant, is sufficiently minute to 

 justify the expression. As in the Pindrow, the leaves originate 

 all round the branch, but dispose themselves laterally in two 

 rows, except in the dwarf bushes at extreme elevations, when 

 those of the upper half become horrent. On comparison with 

 the description of the " Indian silver fir " of the Penny Cyclo- 

 paedia, referred to in p. 47, they fail in the test e< slender, four- 

 cornered ;" and if the cone of the tree there intended be really 



