Sponia.'} URTICACE;E. 345 



Growth extremely fast. The tree from which our specimen was cut, and which was 

 growing in front of the Sivoke Forest House, had attained in five years a height of 25 

 tVrt and about 40 inches in girth, equivalent to less than one ring per inch of radius. 

 Weight, 28 Ibs. per cubic foot. The wood is used for charcoal, which is good for gun- 

 powder manufacture. The bark gives a fibre which is used to tie the rafters of native 

 houses and for carrying loads ; and in Assam for making the coarse Amphak cloth. 

 VanSomeren says it is often allowed to grow for shade in the Mysore and Coorg coffee 

 plantations, and is there called the 'Charcoal Tree.' Brandis says the same has been 

 done in Wynaad. It comes up self-sown in forest clearings and waste places, often, 

 in great profusion, and may be much utilized in plantations to help to keep down the 

 grass jungle. 



Ibs. 



E 2446. Sivoke, Darjeeling Terai 28 



2. S. politoria, Planch. ; Brandis 430 ; Gamble 72. Vern. Bantam- 

 wan, kanglu, khtiri, Pb. ; Jdun, khasaroa, mdrni, bdtu, banharria, 

 Hind.; Kkdoi, khdksi, kooail, Nep. ; Tuksat, Lepcha. 



A small evergreen tree. Bark smooth, or with longitudinal wrinkles, 

 inner bark red. Wood white,, moderately hard, splits and cracks in 

 seasoning-. Annual rings marked by a belt of firmer tissue on the outer 

 edge of each ring. Pores small, often subdivided, uniformly distributed. 

 Medullary rays fine and moderately broad. 



Salt Range, Outer Himalaya, Oudh, Sikkim. 



Growth very fast, 2 rings per inch of radius. Weight, 36 Ibs. per cubic foot. 

 Wood and bark used in a similar way to those of S. orientalis. The leaves are used 

 to polish wood and horn. 



Ibs. 



O 1369. Gonda, Oudh 36 



ORDER XCIII. PLATANE^E. 

 1. PL AT ANUS, Tourn. 



P. occidentalis, Linn., is the American Plane, which differs according to Mathieu 

 and Brandis by less deeply lobed leaves, which are pubescent when full grown and by 

 slightly smaller fruit-heads. Mathieu PI. For., p. 377, gives its weight at 41 Ibs. per 

 cubic foot. 



1. P. orientalis, Linn.; Brandis 434. Vern. Chinar, Pers., Afgh.; 

 Jlti??/, buna, boin, Kashmir. 



A large deciduous tree. Bark J inch thick, smooth, light or dark 

 grey, peeling off in large thin scales. Wood white, hard, with a faint 

 tinge of yellow or red. Annual rings marked by a band of firm tex- 

 ture with few pores on the outer edge of each ring. Pores very small, 

 uniform, and uniformly distributed except in the outer baud of the 

 autumn wood. Medullary rays broad, equidistant, shewing on a radial 

 section as glossy, irregular, wavy, shining plates. 



Cultivated in the North -West Himalaya east to the Sutlej, ascending to 8,300 feet 

 in Ladak. Indigenous in Greece, Macedonia, Armenia and Northern Persia. 



Growth rather fast, our specimen shewed 6 rings per inch of radius. Mathieu, 

 Fl. For., p. 374, gives measurement of a tree in the garden of the Forest School at 

 Nancy, which had 884 feet in height with a girth of 12'3 feet at the age of 1'30 years ; 

 this would be equivalent to 5\ rings per inch of radius. Measurements of several large 

 trees in Persia, Kashmir and Chamba are given b}^ Brandis, p. 435. 



Weight, our specimen gives 41 Ibs. per cubic foot; experiments made in 1879 at 

 Kandahar by Captain Call, K.Ei (Indian Forester, vol. v., p. 478), with bars 1 ft. X 

 1 in. X 1 in. gave an average weight of 38'8 Ibs., P = 587. Mathieu gives 41 to 



2 U 



