HARDWICKIA 343 



Here the trees consist almost entirely of pollards. In the North Arcot district 

 it occurs on the Tirpati and other hills on gneissic rock overlain by masses of 

 quartzite and conglomerate ; the soil is usually a red loam with much sand. 

 Here Hardwickia is associated with Pterocarpus santalinus, P. Marstipium, 

 Ghloroxylon Swietenia, Terminalia Chebula, T. tomentosa, Albizzia Lehbek, 

 A. odoratissi'ma, Dalbergia latifolia, and other species. In the Salem district 

 it is found in the Shevaroy and Aranuttu hills on gneiss, the soil being a red 

 ferruginous sandy loam. It occurs on rocky quartz soil in Anantapur and on 

 the sandstones and shales of the Palnad in Kistna. In Bombay it is found 

 on sandstone in the eastern part of the Belgaum district. 



In the South Chanda district of the Central Provinces Hardwickia hinata 

 is prevalent on sandy and gravelly soil overlying sandstones and quartzites 

 in the Sironcha range. Here it is essentially a tree of the sandy soils^ and 

 attains a girth of 8 ft. It avoids clay unless covered with a depth of sandy 

 debris. In the Nimar district, apart from the trap areas already described, 

 in which, though often remarkably gregarious, it does not attain large dimen- 

 sions, there is a strip of broken and hilly ground along the Nerbudda occupied 

 by Vindhyan sandstone, conglomerate, granite, schist, and limestone. The 

 overlying soil is sandy or gravelly, and though as a rule by no means deep, 

 it is porous, while the underlying rock is much fissured. On this tract, com- 

 prising the Punasa and Chandgarh ranges, Hardwickia is never pure, but is 

 always mixed with other species, seldom forming more than 5 per cent, of the 

 growing stock. The development of the individual trees, however, is here 

 excellent, mature trees with a height of 80-100 ft., a girth of 6-10 ft., and 

 a clean cylindrical bole of 40-50 ft. b^ing by no means uncommon. As regards 

 natural reproduction, a distinction has to be drawn between the forest on the 

 hard crystalline Vindhyan sandstones, which disintegrate with difficulty and 

 have a shallow covering of soil, and the more loose-structured conglomerates 

 and shales, which disintegrate readily and produce a fair depth of porous soil, 

 in that the tree regenerates as a rule more freely on the latter. 



Hardwickia hinata thrives in a dry climate characterized by a long period 

 of drought, scanty to moderate rainfall, and intense heat during the hot 

 season. In the cold season frosts occur only in certain portions of its area 

 of distribution, particularly in low-lying places ; these frosts are as a rule 

 slight. It may be said that within its natural habitat the absolute maximum 

 shade temperature varies from 110 to 117 P., and the absolute minimum 

 from 34 to 50 P., while the normal rainfall varies from 10 to 60 in. ; it 

 appears to thrive best with a rainfall of 20 to 40 in. 



Leaf-shedding, flowering, and fruiting. The tree is leafless or nearly 

 so for a short time towards the end of the cold season, the new leaves, which 

 are tinged with red, appearing in April ; in the hot weather the trees are in 

 leaf, and their feathery foliage is conspicuous when most other species are 

 leafless. Mr. Witt ^ draws attention to their habit of shedding branchlets : 

 'Towards the end of the season of growth, about March, a portion of the 

 year's growth is shed, much in the same way as leaves are shed. ... In April 

 and May the ground under Anjan trees will be found to be littered with small 

 twigs and branches, which at first sight appear to have been broken off, but 



' loc. cit., p. 101. 



