400 XXIII. LEGUMINOSAE 



near Hyderabad. For many years inroads of drifting sand gave much trouble 

 in this place, but it has reproduced naturally over the Miani plain through seed 

 distributed by goats, which eat the pods ; as a result it has fixed the sand 

 and has formed an efficient screen against further inroads of drifting sand. 

 It has also done well in Baluchistan, where it has been found to resist drought 

 admirably. 



In northern India the seed ripens in May and June. Seedlings can best 

 be raised in flower-pots, several seeds being sown in each pot. When about 

 4 in. high they are transferred singly to small pots, and planted out in the 

 monsoon, about August, after a good fall of rain. Direct sowings are also 

 successful. 



Mr. R. N. Parker has published the following interesting note on the tree 

 in the Punjab : ^ 



' One striking peculiarity about the plant is that wherever large specimens 

 are seen in dry and arid districts, natural seedlings are almost sure to be found 

 in abundance in the immediate neighbourhood. The tendency of P. juliflora 

 to spread naturally may be seen on the unil-rigated strip of land between the 

 canal and the plantation at Changa-Manga. Here the rainfall averages 15 inches 

 and the strip of land referred to carries a sparse growth of the trees which 

 were found in this district before the plantation was made, i. e. Prosopis 

 spicigera, Capparis aphylla and Salvadora oleoides. A few trees of P. juliflora 

 were planted some years ago in this strip and they are spreading rapidly, the 

 seedlings being in places so dense that it is difficult to walk through them. 

 Cattle graze here daily, but plants within easy reach show no signs of having 

 been browsed. Seedlings of the indigenous trees it may be remarked are 

 conspicuous by their absence. P. juliflora keeps to the unirrigated ground and 

 shows no inclination to spread into the plantation. 



' In Khushalgarh, in what once was the compound of a P.W.D, build- 

 ing but which now is the most accessible portion of the village grazing ground, 

 there are two P. juliflora trees about 2 ft. in girth and 25 ft. high, A few 

 root-suckers of Capparis aphylla badly browsed by goats and a soft sandstone 

 rock describes the growing stock and soil of the surrounding waste. The rainfall 

 is, I believe, about 18 inches. In spite of these unfavourable conditions, seed- 

 lings of P. juliflora are plentiful around the large trees and extend some 

 distance away into the village waste. 



' In the Pabbi reserve P. juliflora has been successfully used in reboise- 

 ment works and has made considerably faster growth than Acacia modesta, 

 with which it has as a rule been mixed. Regeneration of P. juliflora is frequent 

 in the Pabbi reboisement area, whereas natural seedlings of the indigenous trees 

 are difficult to find. P. juliflora was tried many years ago at Gujranwala. 

 I have not seen the original trees, but along the railway line all the way from 

 Gujranwala to the Pabbi Hills natural seedlings of P. juliflora may be seen at 

 frequent intervals, P. j^diflora has certainly come to stay in the Punjab and 

 it is likely to be a common tree in all the drier districts in time, 



' I have grown P. juliflora on a small scale almost every year since 190G, 

 mainly without much success, but as failures often teach us more than success, 

 I mention some of them. In 1906-07 I tried P. juliflora at Nurpur, district 

 Kangra, The plants grew well as long as they were in pots, but on being 

 planted out they did badly and none were left when I visited Nurpur in 

 October 1912, In Nurpur the rainfall is 67 inches, but the plants were tried 

 in a dry well-drained place. In the winter of 1907-08 I planted some plants in 

 a hedge of Agaves at Phillaur. The plants were not watered at all, but I saw 

 them on the 30th June, 1908 (the rains broke next day), and found them all doing 



1 Tnd. Forester, xxxix (1913), ]). 320. 



