REVIEWS 



Silviculture of Indian Trees. By R. S. Troup, M. A., C. I. E., 



Professor of Forestry, Oxford. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 



England. 1!)21. 3 volumes. Pp. 1195. 490 figures. Colored map of 

 average annual rainfall in India. 



This epoch-making work, the result of years of research into silvi- 

 cultural problems at the Imperial Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, 

 and at other experiment stations and on public forests throughout India, 

 deals with trees ''mainly from a silvicultural point of view." There is 

 included, however, botanical descriptions, and drawings of seedlings of 

 many species ; these latter data were included because of the importance 

 of the development of the seedling in determining the success or failure 

 of regeneration. As might be expected, the data on individual species 

 vary from a few paragraphs for those that are of slight importance 

 industrially, to tree studies of the principal timber trees comprising 

 from 50 to 80 pages. The enormous amount of data presented may 

 be gauged from the fact that the actual printed page is 8 by 5 inches 

 and that there are almost 1,200 pages in the three volumes. To really 

 study and digest all the material presented would take from three to six 

 weeks of the usual working day. Consequently, the reviewer does not 

 claim to have read the entire work. The introduction of over 50 pages 

 gives a survey of the climate of India, forest vegetation by types and 

 subtypes, ecological factors, soil conditions, natural reproduction, in- 

 vasion, succession, and gregariousness, silvicultural treatment and con- 

 clusion. Acknowledgements are made to those who collaborated. 



To the American forester the genera of chief interest are Shorea 

 (which resembles the chestnut oak of New England), the Dalbergia 

 (which has been largely planted in the Changa Manga plantations), 

 the Eucalyptus, the Tectona (perhaps the most important timber tree 

 in India), and the genera of the temperate zone, including especially 

 Quercus, Pinus, and Abies. To those teaching tropical forestry this 

 book will be of immense value. Any silviculturalist making a study of 

 tree species throughout the world will find much of value and interest. 

 It is unfortunate for comparisons with American species that the 

 mensuration data are given by girth classes instead of diameter and 



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