PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
v^> 
'V 
'V 
2 
delicious fragrance. The fcales are very broad, tranfverfely oblong, flat, fan-fhaped, ferruginous, entire, 
fmooth, and thin at the edges, and fomewhat membranaceous in texture [figs. 6 and 7]. Seeds unequal, 
Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. 
v ' 
Magnified. 
fomewhat wedge-fhaped, with a large obovate membranous brown wing, expanding fuddenly on the thinner 
fide, immediately beyond the feed [fig. 8]. Mr Gordon fays that the majority of the male catkins and the 
female flowers are produced on feparate trees, but that a confiderable number of trees alfo produce both male 
and female flowers on the fame individual. 
Defcription .—The tree in its native habitat is defcribed as of enormous flze, fheeting the fldes of the 
mountains with a perennial coat of verdure. It is faid to be by no means unufual, in favourable fltuations, 
to fee it “ with a girth varying from 24 to 30 feet, with a proportionate height and expanfe of branches. 
Several have been meafured 33 and 36 feet in circumference at 4 or 5 feet from the ground, and others 
have been calculated to be 160, 180, or even 200 feet in height.” Nothing can exceed the grandeur of an 
old Deodar of 30 feet girth; nor can any adequate conception be formed of its majeftic character from the 
fmall fpecimens now in exiftence in England. It varies in appearance greatly during its growth. The 
young tree rifes in an elongated conical mafs, tapering off into a long leading fhoot. When it attains 
a height of 50 or 60 feet, the terminal leader is faid to wither,, the top to become flattened, the lateral 
growth increafed, and the tree is faid by fome to drop the character of the Larch, and to put on that 
of the Cedar. That its appearance certainly alters greatly may be inferred from the circumftance that 
the Englifh refidents in the hill-ftations like Simla imagine that there are two fpecies: the old tree which 
they call the Deodar, and the younger one the Kelon. The branches come off clofe to the ground, fpread- 
ing out in horizontal expanflons, rifling flight above flight, in fucceffive flieeted fteps, into a rounded or 
flightly flattened top. The flighteft trace of decay is feldom or never feen in the trunk; and the tree, 
except where growing in very expofed fltuations, never puts on the depreffed tabulated character of the 
Cedar of Lebanon. The Larch-like form, however, muft fubflft alfo for a long period, for it is faid, on the 
authority of Mr Acworth [Gard. Chron., 25th Leb. 1854), that he found the old trees in Lebanon gnarled 
like our own old foreft trees, while the forefts of Deodar which he had vifited in India reminded him of a 
mafs of gigantic Larches. 
Mr Lortune ftates that in the Himmalayahs he could detedt no difference in the habits of old trees of 
the Deodar and the Cedar of Lebanon, the branches, with the exception of the young terminal twigs, being 
ftridfly horizontal; and that as old trees produce very fhort growths of young wood, the pendulous habit is 
fcarcely obfervable. 
A foreft of Deodars exifted fome years ago, and probably ffill exifts, about fix miles from Largoo, 
on the way to the Borinda Pafs. Moft of the trees were 150 feet high, “ as round and taper as a billiard- 
cue,” and from 15 to 18 feet in circumference, without a Angle fide-branch until within a few feet of the top. 
Another foreft, near the Choor Mountain, is defcribed as containing fome moft magnificent Deodars of 
great flze: thoufands there ftanding together 200 feet high and 20 to 25 or even 30 feet in girth. The 
enormous trunks of the trees which had fallen, and which were as high as a man’s head, formed a trouble- 
fome obftacle to the traveller’s progrefs. 
It has been obferved, in its growth in this country, that the lateral branches do not attain the horizontal 
pofltion until they are three years old, and that the pendent top, changing its diredtion every year, makes a 
complete revolution in three years, and fo afcends like a fcrew. 
It 
