256 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



and indeed commonly, is so called. Nevertheless, from some 

 acquaintance with the localities, I am persuaded that his 

 Khutrow or JRooee at 12,591 feet is Picea Webbiana. At 

 p. 5 he tells us, that in some situations, the pines of the outer 

 Himalaya approach 13,000 feet elevation : " The pines and oaks 

 grow at all elevations, from the bed of the Sutluj, 5,000, to 

 the height of 12.000 feet, after which they become stunted and 

 in the form of bushes, are rarely met with at 13,000 feet." 

 Dr. Griffith, as already cited, found it the same in Bhotan. On 

 the Yoosoo Pass, near the source of the Soopun, Captain Gerard 

 (Lloyd and Gerard, I. 25, II. 19) finds that though some pines 

 and oaks reach 11,950 feet, the general limit of forest is 11,800, 

 where " the trees grow stunted and in the form of bushes," a 

 fact much more generally true than Dr. Gerard's, who (I. 243) 

 states that the pines commonly " disappear suddenly while in full 

 perfection," but the Dr. was accustomed to write, with what 

 M. Humboldt mildly terms, " abandon." 



Captain A. Gerard became very early aware that trees are 

 most abundant on the N.W. aspects ; and he also observes, that 

 " they in general rise several hundred feet higher there than on 

 the opposite face ; in some cases, the difference exceeds 1,000 feet 

 (II. 35, 39), the altitude on the N.AY. side, 12,850 feet, being the 

 same as on the north. In the valley of the Buspa, the upper 

 limit of pines is 12,000 feet (II. 39, 42). 



VII. Cedrus deodar a.* — Well informed brahmans of 

 Kumaoon assure me, that no other tree has ever been considered 

 the Deodaroo of the Shastras, and the universal practice of the 

 inhabitants of the province (where the tree seems to be not 

 indigenous) quite corroborates the grammarians, for we find 

 groves of it, carefully protected, about every temple of sanctity : 

 and nowhere else. It has no provincial appellation, except 

 Diyar and Deewar, to which Khusiyas and Gorkalees some- 

 times abbreviate the orthodox Sanscrit. The " Kelon " of 

 Busehur and N.W. Gurhwal (occasionally varied to Keool, Kelee, 

 Keltoo, &c.) and still nearer, "Kelmung " of the Arian popu- 

 lation of Koonawur, is manifestly the Sanscrit " Kilimuh" 

 " Kilimu" rendered Pinus deodara by Dr. Wilson ; and 

 " Kilimum," its resin or extract (Kelon-ka-tel ), from Kil, to 



* It appears from the Gleanings in Science for February, 1830, p. G8, 

 that it was introduced into Great Britain by Dr. Govan in 1818, four or five 

 years anterior to the period I have stated, p. 62. 



It is worthy of inquiry, whether the luxuriance of the vegetation on the 

 western coast of India and its comparative poverty on the Coromandel side, 

 is connected with the same phenomena on the western and eastern faces of 

 the Himalayan ranges, where the abundance of species is by no means re- 

 stricted to the Conifera. 



