THE CHIEF TIMBER-TREES OF INDIA. TL 
up, so as to leave immature trees and the new crop—a procedure 
which of course requires to be varied according to the given 
circumstances. Being light, the timber floats well; and most of 
the deodar logs brought out from Kashmir and the Punjab, and 
the sleepers worked out from the Tons and Jumna valleys in the 
United Provinces, are drifted or rafted down the streams. 
The Sissoo or SHisHAM (the “Shittim ” wood of the ancient 
Jews, Dalbergia Sissoo) grows gregariously in the river-beds of 
streams and on the sandy or stony banks of torrential rivers 
all along the sub-Himalayan tract and the valleys up to 3000 feet 
from the Punjab to Assam, whereas elsewhere it sows itself only 
sparsely throughout the plains of Upper India. Its very hard, 
close-grained, brownish heartwood, streaked with dark longi- 
tudinal veins, does not show the annual rings at all distinctly ; 
but it is a decidedly ornamental wood, which seasons well without 
warping or splitting, takes a good polish, and is admirably 
adapted for carving as well as for all purposes where strength, 
toughness, and durability are demanded. In furniture and 
carving, indeed, it is one of the finest woods in India, being 
perhaps rivalled in this respect only by its very near relative the 
blackwood (D. /atsfolia). Though it reaches a height of about 
60 feet or more, it does not run up in a clean, straight stem, but 
is often buttressed, gnarled-like and twisted, so that it seldom can 
be got to yield good, straight logs. It is of rapid growth at 
first, but soon decreases to a slower rate. It does not usually 
grow to more than about 6 feet in girth, although occasional 
stems of ro and 12 feet near the ground are not altogether 
uncommon. Even when growing gregariously the Sissoo trees 
bear an extremely light crown of foliage; and being exceedingly 
light-demanding, it soon thins itself gradually during the pole 
stage of growth. The pure or almost pure patches of Sissoo 
forest to be found on the sandy river-bed lands of Upper India are 
formed from seed washed down in the pod while the streams are 
in flood. As the pods are indehiscent, they gradually rot away 
till the seed is enabled to germinate, and the young seedling 
utilises most of its energy at first in forming a long tap-root of 
about 6 feet in length, which fixes it in the soil and prevents its 
being washed away during the floods of the following year. As 
the sands become deposited here, this gradually raises the level of 
the ground and forces the water to deepen the channels along- 
side, so that the young crop gradually rises above the surround- 
