22 IX. TAMARISCINE^E. [Tamarix. 



gallica, and forms extensive forests on the low, moist, alluvial lands along the 

 Indus and its principal tributaries. The new formations of alluvial land along 

 the banks of these rivers get covered in early spring with a dense mass of Tam- 

 arisk seedlings, mixed more or less with young plants of the Populus euphratica 

 and Acacia arabica. It is believed that T. dioica is the principal species in 

 these forests, and that T. gallica is less common. It is, however, a matter for 

 further inquiry how far the distribution of these two species, and prevalence of 

 one or the other, is affected by soil, locality, and other circumstances. T. dioica, 

 like gallica, grows freely where the soil is impregnated with salt. Both species 

 are often planted in gardens for ornament. Fl. from May- July ; the seed 

 ripens in the cold season. 



These two species are easily confounded. T. dioica, however, is usually a 

 very much smaller plant than T. gallica. A moderate-sized shrub, 6 or 7 ft. high, 

 rarely attaining 15 ft., with little or no trunk, and numerous, virgate, long 

 spreading branches, generally simple, their extremities bending down gracefully, 

 especially when laden with flower. The twigs are reddish, brownish, or grey ; 

 the bark of the larger branches is dark grey or brown. The foliage is of a greyer 

 green than that of T. gallica. 



The wood is white with a pinkish tinge, loose- and open-grained, with nume- 

 rous broad medullary rays. It is occasionally used for the supporting sticks of 

 roofs, but mainly for fuel, like the preceding species. The Tamarisk forests are 

 of great importance as sources of fuel, and the reproduction of these two species 

 from coppice-shoots requires special study. It has hitherto been supposed that 

 they coppice well under favourable circumstances ; but recent experience seems 

 to show that the power of reproduction from coppice-shoots of these species has 

 been overestimated. 



3. T. articulata, VahL Tab, VII Hook. FL Ind.i. 249 ; Boissier 

 Fl. Orient, i. 777. Syn. T. orientalis, Forsk. Vern. Frash, fards,farioa, 

 rukh, ukhdn, hharlei, narlei, Pb. ; Asrelei, Sindh. 



A tree. Leaves minute, sheathing ; branchlets apparently articulate at 

 base of sheath ; sheath thin, tightly adpressed, y 1 ^ in. long, obliquely trun- 

 cate, white-margined, with a triangular acute tooth in the place of the 

 lamina ; sheath and tooth covered with impressed-punctate glands, often 

 hoary with saline efflorescence. Flowers bisexual or monoecious, pentam- 

 erous, loosely scattered on long slender spikes, generally clustering at the 

 ends of branches into loose racemose panicles. Bracts triangular from a 

 sheathing base, concave, acute, shorter than flowers. Disc indistinctly 5- 

 lobed. Capsule oblong, tapering, surrounded by the persistent sepals and 

 petals. 



Panjab (ascending to 1200 ft.) Upper and Middle Sindh, eastwards to the 

 Jumna. In Rohilkhand only cultivated. Beyond India, in Afghanistan, Per- 

 sia, Arabia, North and Central Africa, Grows well on saline soils. The leaves 

 and extremities of branchlets are shed (partly) during the cold season, the new 

 shoots and leaves come out about May. Flowers from May to July, the fruit 

 ripening later in the season. Growth rapid ; trees 12 years old on an average 

 attain a girth of 2-3 ft., one 15 years old measured 4 ft. 10 in. in girth, and 

 it is stated that at times it attains 5 ft. in 7 years. Springs up freely from seed, 

 and is readily propagated from cuttings. Coppices well. ' 



In the Panjab it grows to be a moderate-sized tree, to 60 ft. high, with an 

 erect trunk, often 6 or 7 ft. in girth, occasionally attaining 10-12 ft., taper- 

 ing rapidly, with spreading branches, forming. a close oval head. The slender 

 twigs are frequently hoary with saline inflorescence ; bark of branchlets smooth, 



