APPENDIX I. 



THE BLAZES OF TREES. 



In marking trees for felling among the tall stems aud 

 numerous valuable species of the Eastern Himalayas, the 

 writer found the blaze a most useful subsidiary character for 

 determining species, where the foliage of the trees could 

 not be clearly distinguished from that of their neighbours in 

 the tangle of verdure overhead. 



By the blaze is meant the mark made by removing a 

 piece of the bark off the truuk by a downward stroke of a 

 cutting instrument. It is not however easy to put into writing 

 all that may be learnt in the act of cutting, and the following 

 is an incomplete and merely preliminary account of the 

 blazes of a few of the Chota Nagpur species. Incidentally 

 it may be remarked that the blaze is often a useful way of 

 determining the species of trees which compose a freshly 

 cut stack of fuel. 



The characters chiefly employed are :— 



(a) Colour and surface of the outer dead bark, and its 

 thickness. 



(b) Thickness of the bark as a whole. 



The thickness of the bark, both (a) and (&), varies with 

 the age of the tree as well as with the species, so that no 

 absolute measurements can be given. 



(c) The feel of the cut, or its texture. Some barks, foe 

 instance, are stringy like the Sal, others give a distinctly 

 gritty cut, as in Litseea semecarpifolia (not a tree of our 

 area), others a cheesy out, others are very hard. 



(i) The colour of the blaze. This may be uniform, or 



more frequently, the successive layers of the bark which, 



owing to the cylindrical form of the trunk, can all be 



587 



