CUPRESSUS TORULOSA. 
3 
province; and Dr Jameson says it is abundant there, as well as near Kunnoor and at Surin or 
Surroo Tota, the place taking its name from the tree. There it occurs in the very bed of the river 
Dowli, the largest and longest branch of the Ganges, which takes its rise from a snow bed at the 
summit of the Neetee Pass, where it is so small that it was stepped across by Dr Jameson and 
his party in June. Dr Royle found it at 11,500 feet above the sea, also in Koonawar, on the borders 
of Chinese Tartary. Hitherto it has only been found in inaccessible situations in the Himmalayas, 
from whence its timber could not be transported to the plains. 
History .—First discovered and collected by Hamilton in his journey through Nepaul in 1802 and 
1803, and described by Don from his specimens in 1825. Since then it remained little known until 
seeds were sent under the impulse given to the introduction of Himmalayan Conifers by the large importa¬ 
tions by H.M. Commissioners of Woods and Forests, about 1852. It was, however, previously intro¬ 
duced by Dr Wallich in 1824, and a fresh supply of seeds sent in 1836, and from time to time consign¬ 
ments have reached this country; so that there are trees to be met with of various ages in England, the 
most of them, however, being young, the older ones having been very generally killed off by severe winters. 
Properties and Uses. —From the inaccessible character of its native localities, little can be said of its 
uses from a practical or commercial point of view. Dr Jameson (op. cit.) says that it is admirably adapted 
for building material, its wood being very hard, close-grained, tough, long-fibred, and of a dark-red colour; 
and he thinks that there is good reason to expeCt it to be as durable as the common Cypress (Cupressus 
sempervireiis). This may probably be so, although not necessarily, for we can point to many closely 
allied species displaying much difference in the quality of their timber. Neither does it follow that its 
possession of the properties he enumerates makes it a good building tree. There is something peculiar 
in the timber of all the Cypresses, which, while fitting it especially for one purpose, makes it less adapted 
to others. The long fibre and stringiness of the wood, while they add to its tenacity and toughness, at 
the same time take from its workableness. It will be better, before forming an opinion as to the value of 
the timber, to wait until it has been fairly tried. 
HiltiLre. —This is one of those unsatisfactory species which we can never be sure of in England. 
It may thrive for twenty years, when some severe winter comes and cuts it off. 
Mr Palmer’s tables of the worst effeCts of the winter of 1860-61 give the following unsatisfactory 
results, viz.:—In England, of 52 specimens, 34 were killed, 9 much injured, 2 slightly injured, and 
only 7 uninjured; in Scotland, of 11 specimens, 7 were killed, 1 much injured, 1 injured, and 2 
uninjured; while in Ireland, of 3 specimens, 2 were injured, and the third escaped. In other 
words, only 15 out of 66, or, adding the varieties which are separately reported on, 15 out of 73, 
or about 1 -5th, escaped tolerably uninjured. We see that Ireland escaped, probably in consequence 
of the greater mildness of its climate. Of those in England and Scotland which escaped, their impunity 
would seem to be, to a certain extent, due to some modification of climate, occasioned by the influence 
of the sea. To begin with, the chief number of the uninjured or slightly injured are in the Southern 
counties. Then not a single instance of escape occurs in the Midland counties ; but a few escapes or half 
escapes shew themselves in Yorkshire and Lancashire, and in Scotland even as far north as Caithness. 
The reader knows that Mr Palmer’s tables speak only of “ the worst effedts,” and consequently that his 
results do not mean that in all the Midland counties no Cupressus torulosa escaped; but only that there 
was not a single garden reported on in all that distridt in which there was not one dead. 
The gardens in the counties of Cornwall, Gloucester, Hereford, Denbigh, Oxford, Bedford, Hertford, 
Cambridge, Huntingdon, Norfolk, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Chester, Westmoreland, 
Linlithgow, Stirling, Perth, Forfar, and Inverness, all make one report, “Worst effedt, killed.” In other 
counties its fate in some of the gardens reported on was various, Hants, Surrey, Berks, Bedford, Lancaster, 
and York, having, in addition to gardens where it was killed, others where it was more or less injured 
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or 
