266 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



high, above the level of 10,600 feet (I. 6, L 342). But this 

 upper limit of 12,300 is proper only to Koonawur and similar 

 climates, where the range of arboreous vegetation rises with the 

 snow-line, as remarked by Mr. Colebrooke. 



Further observation has overthrown an idea hazarded in the 

 original paper, that the cedar shuns limestone formations : 

 Shallee mountain N.E. of Simlah, and Deobun in Jounsar, both 

 of this rock, are well grown with cedar ; in fact, with exception 

 of the ranges, however lofty, next to the plains, it seems very 

 indifferent to site and substance, flourishing equally amongst the 

 clefts of the most scarped rocks, gneiss, quartz, limestone, 

 granite, clay and mica slates, as in the black vegetable mould of 

 the brae or glen, provided always the surface of the latter slope 

 to an angle sufficient to ensure thorough drainage. This con- 

 dition seems indeed essential to all our forests : even in the 

 Turaee a dead level is invariably grass jungle: but the moment 

 a rise commences, the land is occupied by forest. 



Although the Deodar abounds and attains a great girth on 

 mountains thirty miles from the plains, all the gigantic specimens 

 on record occur near the snowy range. On Choor, not one ex- 

 ceeded 17 feet round at 5 high ; but at Sildes, near Looloot, 

 on the western side of the Changsheel Range, there exists a 

 hollow, flat-crowned patriarch, 36 feet round, at 4 from the 

 ground ; there is another of the same dimensions near the sacred 

 fish tank below Cheenee, in Koonawur ; and at Sheong, on the 

 north face of the Boorun Ghatee, one of 33 feet. Dr. Hoff- 

 meister (p. 504) mentions " individual specimens above 40 feet 

 in circumference." 



Between Kugna and the Choor, there is a cedar forest in 

 which nine-tenths of the trees were snapped in two by the snow 

 of the winter, 1844-45 ; a sufficient proof that their needle-leaves 

 do not preserve them from destruction by this cause (p. 67), 

 which acts with peculiar force when frost succeeding a partial 

 thaw is followed by a gale of wind. A little reflection, indeed, 

 on the facts of the case suffices to demolish the theory alluded to; 

 for the longest-leaved pines, on which snow rests with most 

 difficulty, as Pinaster Halepensis, australis, longifolia, prefer a 

 zone in which it is unknown or comparatively rare ; while P. 

 sylvestris, Picea Webbiana, Pindrow, pectinata, with short stiff 

 leaves and branches, well calculated to arrest the snow, flourish 

 exactly where it falls most copiously. Whole forests of some of 

 these may be observed dead in many places from Bhotan to 

 Busehur, as well as in the European Alps, for which no cause 

 has been assigned ; but lightning seems the most probable (com- 

 pare, however, note, ante.) 



Dr. Lindley ( Veg. Kingdom, 227) remarks, that Dr. Brown 



