gradually scarcer, and in such places its companions may be Pinus Gerardiana and Quercus Ilex.
The deodar can attain a very great size.[1] Thomson[2] mentions one near Nachar, on the Sutlej, that was 35½ feet in girth. Dr. Stewart measured one at Kiuarsi in the valley of the Ravi that was 44 feet at 2 feet, and 36 feet at 6 feet from the ground; another about 900 years old was 34½ feet in girth. Minniken records a tree at Punang, in Bashahr, that was 150 feet high and had a girth of over 36 feet, the clean bole being 45 feet long. Dr. Schlich measured a tree in the Sutlej valley 250 feet high with a girth of 20 feet.
In the Dumrali block in the Tehri-Garhwal leased forests a fallen tree was unearthed 90 feet long and over 7 feet in diameter, which had been dead for at least 100 years, and was, when it fell, probably 550 years old. When cut up it gave 460 metre-gauge sleepers. I am indebted to Mr. J.H. Lace for the illustration (Plate 139) representing a group of deodars in the Himalayas.
A great section in the corridor of the forest school at Dehra Dún is 23 feet in girth, with 665 annual rings. The number of annual rings to the inch varies much according to the elevation and rainfall, but averages about 8 to 12, though in the Kuram valley Bagshawe found an average of about 21.
As an ornamental tree there are few in the world that can compare with the deodar. From the Lebanon cedar and the Atlas cedar it differs somewhat in appearance, but even to an expert, in the collections of Europe, it is not always easy to recognise to which of the three species a given specimen belongs. Roughly, however, the deodar is distinguished by means of its drooping branches and its longer needles. Two well-marked varieties are recognisable in the forests, the one with dark green, the other with silvery foliage. The latter variety, well known in European collections, is found wild in ravines at a comparatively low level. Gamble saw it in Jaunsar, in the upper Dharagadh, in ravines at from 4000 to 6000 feet, and believes that the variety comes true from seed.
Deodar trees are often lopped for litter, and if the leading shoot is not damaged, the tree grows on well enough; when the leading shoot is cut or damaged, the tree shows a great tendency to form others; and frequently several erect shoots, with the appearance of young trees, may be seen growing up straight from its branches. The deodar may be almost said to produce coppice shoots, for, as Brandis remarks, if only a small branch be left to a stump, it will send out shoots and grow well, eventually, perhaps, forming a new tree.
In close forests deodars flower and seed rather sparsely; for good seed bearers we have to look to the old trees on dry ridges, where they can get a large amount of sunlight. When the seeds are ripe the cones break up and the scales fall; the winged seeds are then carried by the wind for a short distance. It may be interesting to record the result of the examination of an average cone by Mr. B. B. Osmaston in October 1900. He found in the top part 25 scales, with 50 bad seeds;
- ↑ Webber, in Forests of Upper India, 331 (1902), says: "I have seen deodars 40 feet in girth and 250 feet high, the age of which must be 1000 years or more"; and Pakenham Edgworth informed Bunbury that he had measured deodars 46 feet in girth. Cf. Lyell, Life of Sir C.J.F. Bunbury, ii. 238 (1906).
- ↑ Western Himalaya and Tibet, 64 (1852).
