268 



OBSERVATION'S ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



rounded or spreading crowns by the development of the upper- 

 most boughs and the decay of the rest.* 



It would appear that even on its native mountains (p. 64) the 

 cedar of Lebanon affords timber little if at all superior to the 

 coarse, soft, warping wood of the English specimens. Pococke, 

 in 1744-45, examined the trees on Lebanon, and says " the wood 

 does not differ from white deal in appearance, nor does it seem 

 to be harder;" in the " British Gunner" its specific gravity is 

 given 613; that of Indian cedar 1315; but this last cannot be 

 the Deodar, which, on an average of 20 trials by Captain TV. 

 Jones, shows only 680. 



The Deodar grafts freely on the cedar of Lebanon ; the vil- 

 lage of Eden, the chief or only site where the latter remains, is 

 6400 feet above the sea. Authorities differ as to the number of 

 cotyledons, some allowing only 6, others from 9 to 11, which 

 agrees with the Deodar. u The female catkins are produced in 

 October, but the cones do not appear till the end of the second 

 year ; and, if not gathered, they will remain attached to the tree 

 for several years ;" but in the Deodar they are produced and 

 fall to pieces annually : and Roxburgh was certainly misinformed 

 when he Was led to represent the scales as " so close as in general 

 to prevent the escape of the seeds Mithout help." On the con- 



* In the botanical portion of Berghaus' 1 Physical Atlas ' we are told, 

 that Pinus cedrus, the cedar of Lebanon, as -well as the Deodar, inhabits 

 the Himalaya, for which I think there is no other authority, unless this be 

 intended to intimate their identity. The site of the latter is said to be u the 

 Alps of Nepal and Tibet, at a height of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet." An 

 English editor had the means of discovering that there is no proof of its 

 presence in Tibet, and that at Simla, &c, it descends to 6000 feet. 



The same work furnishes the following distinctive habitats of our Coni- 

 ferce. amusing as samples of critical variety of expression employed to dis- 

 guise a total ignorauce of details : 



Pinus Webbiana. " The cold regions of northern India." 



Pinus Brunoniana. " Northern Provinces of India." 



Pinus Smithiana. " Mountains adjoining the Himalaya." 



In one page we are told that Quercus semecarpifolia forms the limits of 

 trees at 11,500 feet on the south face of the Himalaya, which is true enough ; 

 but in the next page, the same level, with the same aspect, is assigned as 

 the limit of shrubs, juniper, salix, ribes, which is necessarily and naturally 

 false. 



It is asserted that M snow is unknown " below 5000 feet. In the Glean- 

 ings in Science, April, 1830, p. 116, we have the notorious fact recorded, 

 that in 1815 it fell at Kalsee, on the Jumna, at 2500 feet; and "lay deep" 

 on the Sewalik range, from 2000 to 3500. This was repeated in the winter 

 of 1846—17, when it fell at 2500 or lower in the Dehra Doon, and certainly 

 to 3000 at Bagesur, in Kumaoon. In February, 1836, I am assured snow 

 fell at Bilaspoor, on the Sutluj, 1465 feet. These, no doubt, were ex- 

 ceptional seasons, occurring at long intervals ; but their possibility is a very 

 necessary element in a view of botanical geography : while evert/ severe 

 winter snow falls, though it rarely lies, a thousand feet below the zone 

 where this work affirms it to be unknown. 



