

150 XXXI. LEGUMINOS^E. [Dalbergia. 



of the numerous recorded experiments by Baker, Cunningham, and others, and 

 excluding extremes, the mean value of P. will be found to range between 700 

 and 900. Sissoo is very elastic, it seasons well, does not warp or split, and 

 takes a fine polish. It is durable in the Panjab and North- West India, less so 

 in Bengal. Boats made of Sissoo on the Chenab will last 20 years. 



Sissoo wood is esteemed highly for all purposes where strength and elasticity 

 are required. It is used extensively in boat-building, for carts and carriages, 

 agricultural implements, camel-saddle- frames, doors and window-frames, and in 

 construction generally. It is an excellent and beautiful furniture-wood. At 

 present the use of Sissoo wood is only limited by the insufficient supply. Until 

 about 1820, considerable supplies of large Sissoo logs were regularly imported 

 into Calcutta from the forests of the sub-Himalayan tracts of Nepal and adjoining 

 districts. In those days Sissoo was the principal wood used for the construction 

 of gun-carriages in Bengal; and it was only between 1820 and 1830 that Sissoo 

 of large dimensions became scarce, and that Sal timber began to be used exten- 

 sively for this purpose, being more plentiful than Sissoo, though heavier, and 

 not easily seasoned. The twigs and leaves are often lopped for cattle-fodder ; 

 camels prefer Sissoo to Kikar. The raspings of the wood are used in native 

 medicine. 



The Sissoo is easily raised from seed, grows rapidly with a long tap-root. The 

 night frosts in the Panjab turn the leaves black, but do not kill the plants. The 

 roots are bitter, and are not touched by white ants or rats. The Sissoo tree con- 

 tinues to grow rapidly until it attains maturity. In the Panjab it attains, under 

 fair conditions, on an average 2^ ft. girth in 12, and 4| ft. in 30 years. It cop- 

 pices well, and in the Southern Panjab and Sindh it has always been raised 

 from slips, often cuttings of thick branches. The slips are cut 1 ft. long, and are 

 put in about the end of Feb., sometimes in March. 



In the large plantations made since 1865 in the Panjab plains, the Sissoo is at 

 present the most important tree. Its requirements and treatment are beginning to 

 be well understood," and several thousand acres are now stocked with it. Here, as 

 well as in its natural habitat, the Sissoo shows a decided preference for a light sandy 

 soil. The tree is healthiest in the low Sailaba lands, which stretch along the 

 main rivers, and are kept moist by percolation. On the bar or high ground be 

 tween the rivers it thrives with the aid of canal irrigation when the soil is * 

 sandy loam. On stiff binding soils the roots are small and the trees often un- 

 healthy. On saline soils, and when there is a substratum of kankar, the Sissoo 

 will not thrive. Eegarding the eventual yield of these Sissoo plantations, and the 

 production per acre, no definite estimate can yet be based upon the fragmentary 

 data available. But so much is certain, that these plantations will yield large 

 supplies of fuel and a proportion of timber, though it may appear doubtful 

 whether so near its north-western limit the tree will attain dimensions at all 

 approaching to those of the Sissoo in the more moist and forcing climate of the 

 Nepal and Sikkim Terai, or in Bengal. 



4. D. paniculata, Eoxb. Cor. PL t. 114 ; Fl. Ind. iii. 227; W. & A. 

 Prodr. 265. Yern. Katsirsa, Oudh; Dobein, dhobin, jpassi, C.P. ; Padri, 

 Dharwar. 



A large or moderate-sized tree, the wood in broad concentric masses, 

 alternating with narrow layers of fibrous tissue. Young branchlets, peti- 

 oles, and inflorescence hairy. Leaves turn black in drying; leaflets 9-13, 

 generally 1 in. long, obovate, oblong or oval, glabrous, hairy beneath along 

 midrib ; venation reticulate; no prominent lateral nerves. Panicles ter- 



