92 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



India are deciduous, and they are bare and leafless during the hot 

 season. During this time of the year, the sojourn in the Indian 

 forests is not pleasant. No shade, no protection against the fierce 

 rays of the sun, great scarcity of water in many parts, and a tent or 

 hut with a temperature in its coolest part of 105°, — these are condi- 

 tions of existence which are not easily forgotten. Deciduous, how- 

 ever, as applied to trees is a relative term. The only difference is, 

 that an evergreen tree retains its leaves lunger than one which is 

 called deciduous. Thus the spruce and silver-fir retain their needles 

 from seven to eleven years, the Spanish Pinus Pinsapo and the 

 Araucaria retain them even longer, hence the full foliage and the 

 dense shade of these trees. On the other hand, the needles of the 

 Corsican and Austrian fir (Pinus Laricio) remain three to four years ; 

 and the Scotch fir, with lighter foliage, has needles of two or three 

 years only on its branches. The Sal tree (Shorea robusta), one of 

 the most important timber trees of India, with strong, hard, heavy 

 wood, which forms extensive forests along the foot of the Himalaya 

 and in the eastern part of Central India, retains its leaves nearly 

 twelve months; the old leaves fall gradually, and the foliage gets 

 thinner and thinner, until the new flush of leaves breaks out in March 

 or early in April. So that although a sal forest is hot during that 

 time of the year, and there is not much shade, yet the tree is never 

 completely bare. The Teak tree, on the other hand, which may be 

 called the king of Indian timber trees, on account of its useful, dur- 

 able, strong, and yet not very heavy wood, sheds its leaves as early 

 as January, and is leafless for four or five months, though this again 

 depends upon the supply of moisture, for in low humid places the 

 tree often continues green throughout February. Fortunately for 

 i'oresters in the hot dry provinces of India, there are to be found in 

 most dry deciduous forests one or two kinds which break out in leaf 

 sooner than the others, and I have spent many an hour during the 

 heat of the day under the grateful shade of what we call the forester's 

 friend (Schleicherq trijur/a), a tree remarkable for its extremely heavy 

 wood, the cubic foot weighing, when perfectly dry, over 70 lbs., or 

 nearly three times the weight of common deal. 



The grass and fallen leaves, in these dry, deciduous forests, dry 

 up rapidly during this season, and towards March and April every- 

 thing is so scorched that it is as inflammable as tinder, so that the 

 smallest spark is sufficient to create a conflagration. These jungle- 

 fires are almost a regular annual institution in the deciduous forests 

 of most provinces. In some instances, they are caused by accident, 



