THE CHIEF TIMBER-TREES OF INDIA, 123 
oil employed for perfumery and medicinal purposes, sells at the 
wood depéts for from £27 to 433 aton. The tree is chiefly pro- 
pagated by means of birds, which eat the fruit and drop the seed 
from the branches where they perch. Here it germinates in the 
shade, usually coming up in wisps of a tree or two among bushes, 
through which it gradually pushes its way, though more quickly, 
of course, with artificial aid, in quest of the light necessary for 
its proper development as a tree surrounded with scrubly vegeta- 
tion. Thus, if carefully protected against grazing and fire, it 
can be made to extend itself naturally on suitable land, its 
favourite situation being on a red and rather stony soil; and 
this method of cultivation, combined with judicious management 
of the existing forest areas, gives better promise of good future 
supplies of first-class wood than plantations are ever likely to 
yield, as the latter have proved unduly expensive and not really 
satisfactory in other respects. Hence, the most that is now done 
in this way is to dibble in seed in suitable places under the shade 
of other trees, and in prepared patches in clumps of bushes and 
scrub jungle. Planting in the open seems to fail invariably, as 
the seedlings require some little protection against the scorching 
power of the strong tropic sun. Its rate of growth varies con- 
siderably according to the given local conditions as to soil and 
climate, but old trees examined in Mysore have been found to 
give an average of a little over 9 annual rings per inch of 
radius. The system of working adopted in Mysore is to fell 
the trees at the age of 4o years, 8 inches being estimated as the 
average growth in girth per ro years, and the minimum size of 
the mature tree being taken as 32 inches in girth at 44 feet 
above the ground. In the sandalwood forests of Madras, 
selection-fellings are annually made over one-tenth of the area, 
all dead and dying trees being removed, as well as all mature 
trees above 32 inches in girth, and the roots of the same. 
The Rep SanpErs (Lrerocarpus santalinus) of Madras has the 
least extensive distribution of any of the important Indian trees, 
as it is confined to an area of about 6000 square miles in and 
around the Cuddapah district, where the annual rainfall is 
only about 42 inches, and the shade-temperature varies from 
7o to 120°. Its extremely hard and heavy wood, of an orange- 
red colour when freshly cut, but deepening to a claret-red or 
almost black, are highly prized as house-posts, often being richly 
carved in the houses of the rich, and for ploughs and other 
