OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 265 



Masson (II. 25, 33, 152) states that the plain of Lus, near 

 Sonmeeanee, as well as the country between Sehwan and Kura- 

 chee, in Sindh, is " overspread with the magnificent Dedar f 

 associated with tropical trees, and flourishing in that burning 

 climate, we must not confound this with the Himalayan Deodar ; 

 in his journey to Kelat, also, the Deodar is classed amongst 

 trees common to Bilochistan and Hindoostan, and may be 

 Guatteria longifolia, the Deodar of Bombay and Calcutta ; but 

 Richardson has Deevdal or Deewdal, Persian for the white 

 poplar; and as both Griffith and Vicary mention a species of 

 Populus in Sindh, allied to, if not identical with, P. euphratica, 

 we may conclude this to be Mr. Masson's Dedar. 



Captain A. Gerard fixes the lowest limit of the cedar, on a 

 south aspect near Simla, at 6,436 feet, but the fact of its attain- 

 ing a considerable size near the south cascade there, suffices to 

 justify my lower estimate of 5,500 ; and Captain Hodgson, who 

 says it flourishes most between 6,000 and 10,000 feet, adds that 

 it occurs below and above those limits. — ( Gleanings in Science, 

 Feb. 1830, p. 52.) Mr. Winterbottom informs me, that it 

 descends certainly to 5,000 in Kashmeer ; and it is quite at home 

 at Hawulbagh, 4,000 feet, and ripens its fruit well, though not 

 abundantly, at Almorah, 5,500, where it is equally an exotic. 

 In some seasons, as this of 1849, there is a general failure of 

 seed. On the northern face of the Busehur Himalaya, lat. 

 31° 30', Captain Gerard assigns 7,414 feet as its lowest, and 

 10,943 feet as its highest limit ; but it certainly descends much 

 lower along the Sutluj, north of the Shatool Pass. Dr. Hoff- 

 meister's limits are 8,000 and 11,000, of which the first is 

 at least 2,000 too high ; by his manuscript I find that he met 

 scattered specimens only 300 feet below Rhododendron cam- 

 panulatum, on the north face of the Harung Pass, above 

 Sungla, in Koonawur ; and we have seen that the tree reaches 

 considerably above Gungotree, itself 10,319 feet ; 10,500 feet 

 must be, therefore, rather under than above the mark, for the 

 upper limit on the southern face of the Himalaya. Captain 

 Herbert expressly informs us {Gleanings in Science, Feb. 1830, 

 p. 69), in contradiction of a report that he had seen the cedar at 

 13,000 feet in Koonawur, that 11,300 was the highest point at 

 which he observed it ; but Captain A. Gerard, who explored 

 that district in every direction, says (Lloyd and Gerards, II. 

 296), " the Kelon seldom occurs below 6,000 feet, and its upper 

 limit is nearly 12,000 feet: in a few favourable situations 

 I have found the latter above 12,300." Two above 12,000 had 

 been previously recorded (pp. 264, 267), viz. 12,300 near 

 Soongnum, and 12,100 on the Werung Pass. Dr. Gerard 

 measured Deodars of 13 feet in circumference, and 140 feet 



