THE DEODAR, OR INDIAN CEDAR. 
167 
The Deodar, or Indian Cedar {Cedrus deodara). 
Although, as we have indicated, the differences between the 
Cedar of Lebanon and the Cedar of Himalaya are not such as 
can be scientifically accepted as constituting specific distinct- 
ness, they are sufficient to at once strike the ordinary observer. 
In proportion to the height of the trunk, for example, the main 
branches are much shorter, the result being a more regular 
pyramidal outline, terminating in a light spire. The terminal 
shoots of the branches are longer, more slender, and quite 
pendulous. These differences, though really slight, transform 
the rather heavy majesty of the Cedar, as represented by C. 
libani, into one of graceful beauty. Although the experience of 
sixty years has sadly falsified the high hopes entertained as to 
the suitability of the Deodar for cultivation in this country as a 
timber tree, its value for ornamental purposes and in landscape 
gardening has not been impaired. 
The headquarters of the Deodar are in the mountains of 
north-west India, where it forms forests at various altitudes 
above 3500 feet. Its vertical distribution, indeed, extends to 
a height of 12,000 feet, but its principal habitat lies between 
6000 and 10,000 feet. Deodar timber produced in its native 
forests is exceedingly durable, being compact and even grained, 
not liable to warp or split, and standing the test of being 
alternately wet and dry. Loudon states that when a building, 
which had been erected by the Emperor Akbar in the latter 
part of the sixteenth century, was pulled down between 1820 and 
1825, the Deodar timber used in its construction was found to be 
so sound that it was again used in building a house for Rajah 
Shah. And Brandis tells of very much more ancient bridges in 
Srunagar, whose piers are of Deodar wood, and appear to be 
as yet unaffected by decay. 
It is to the Hon. W. L. Melville that we are indebted for the 
introduction of the Deodar to Britain in 1831, and during the 
V 
