38 DIPTEROCARPE^l. [ Shorea. 



very straight-grained, clean and free from knots; it seasons more kindly, and is 

 stronger than the Durbhungah sal ; only a practised eye can distinguish one sal from 

 the other." Many of these supposed varieties, however, exist in imagination 

 only, e.g., the two Buxa pieces E 3137 and E 3138, the Nepalese sawyers say that one 

 is a softer and redder wood than the other, but we can distinguish no such difference 

 between them. 



Sal is the timber which in Northern India is the most extensively used. It is in 

 constant request for piles, beams, planking and railing of bridges ; for beams, door 

 and window-posts of houses ; for gun-carriages ; the body of carts (not the wheels, for 

 which it is unsuited and for which sissu or even saj is better) ; and above all, for 

 railway sleepers, the yearly consumption of which reaches some lakhs of cubic feet. 

 It is used in the hills of Northern Bengal, where it is found, perhaps, of the largest size 

 now available, for making canoes. Owing to its not being floatable, difficulty is 

 experienced in most sal forests in getting the timber out of the forests in log. The 

 difficulty is, however, partially overcome by floating the logs either with the assistance 

 of boats or with floats of bamboos or light woods, such as semul (Bombax 

 malabaricum). 



When tapped, the tree exudes large quantities of a whitish, aromatic, transparent 

 resin (Idl d/iuna). which is collected and sold. It is used to caulk boats and ships and 

 as incense. " In some places in the Upper Tista forests, large pieces, often 30 to 40 

 cubic inches in size, are found in the ground at the foot of the trees." Gamble. Large 

 extents of forest, chiefly in Central India, such as Chota Nagpore, the Central Provinces 

 and the country between the Mahauadi and Godavari, are often ruined by this practice 

 of tapping the trees to obtain the resin. The seed is eaten by the Sonthals, especially 

 in time of scarcity, it is roasted and is usually eaten mixed with the flowers of the 

 Mohwa (Bassia latifolia). 



Scarcely any tree of the Indian forests has such a power of natural reproduction as 

 sal. The seed ripens at the commencement of the rains ; and often germinating even 

 while yet on the tree, the heavy seed is scattered around and at once produces a crop 

 of seedlings. Without light, however, these seedlings soon die off, so that cuttings in 

 sal forest where fire protection is assured, might be heavy. But, usually, scarcely 

 have the seedlings reached one year in age when they are destroyed by jungle fires, 

 but so great is the vitality of the plant, that the roots of the stems destroyed again at 

 once put out fresh shoots, and this happens often year after year, so that at the root of the 

 tree a large hard ball of wood and bark is formed. With fire-protection, however, the 

 regeneration of sal forests is almost a certainty ; the seedlings in a few years kill 

 down the grass and plants of slower growth which surround them, and form forests, 

 often of very considerable extent, almost to the exclusion of other species of tree. 

 The sal tree coppices, especially when young, but not under all circumstances. 



(The identification of ihis last sj.relmen is dnnUful ; the poivs are not filled with 

 and the medullary rays are finer and mure numerous than in sal.) 



