416 XXIII. LEGUMINOSAE 



not attain large dimensions. Bourdillon notes that in Travancore it does not 

 seem to thrive well at the lower elevations where it is most common, but is 

 badly shaped, fluted, and twisted, whereas at 1,500 ft. and upwards, where 

 it is not so abundant, it attains a larger size : this may, however, possibly 

 be due to geological formation and soil rather than to elevation. Opinions 

 appear to vary as regards the fire-resisting power of this tree. Talbot attributes 

 the defective unsound stems in the Bombay Presidency to forest fires : 

 ]\rr. D. T. Barry,^ writing of South Canara, says it withstands fire better than 

 most species. The effect of fire on natural reproduction is dealt with below. 



The tree coppices and pollards well, and produces root-suckers in abmi- 

 dance, particularly in burnt areas and where the roots are exposed. Coppice 

 and pollard experiments carried out in 1909 in North Chanda, in which cutting 

 was done in April, May, and June, gave the following results in the case of 

 Xylia as compared with teak : 



(1) Percentage of stools which produced coppice-shoots : Xylia 95 per 



cent. ; teak 97 per cent. 



(2) Percentage of success in pollarding : Xylia 85 per cent. ; teak 73 



per cent. 



Natural reproduction. The seeds germinate with the early showers 

 of the rainy season, and in May numerous young seedlings may be found on 

 the ground with the cotyledons still present. The natural i-eproduction of 

 this tree is profuse throughout the greater part of its habitat, and in Bombay 

 it threatens in places to oust more valuable species such as teak, blackwood, 

 and Pterocarpus Marsupium, forming pure young crops under the other trees 

 of the mixed deciduous forests, often to the almost complete exclusion of 

 other species. In the teak plantations of Nilambur in South Malabar young 

 crops of Xylia have appeared in quantity on the laterite areas where the teak 

 develops poorly and has almost disappeared in places. In the Central Provinces 

 natural reproduction has spread extensively in the mixed deciduous forests 

 where seed-bearers are present, forming dense pure crops under teak and other 

 trees, and it is a question whether the tree will not yet prove to be noxious 

 in preventing the reproduction of the more valuable species. In the majority 

 of cases the spread of Xylia reproduction is directly traceable to fire-protection, 

 its shade-bearing character and its immunity from damage by grazing being 

 of special assistance to it. In moist regions where the vegetation tends to 

 assume a tropical evergreen character, however, fire-protection appears to 

 have the reverse effect, favouring the spread of the more shade-bearing ever- 

 greens, to the detriment of Xylia reproduction. 



Natural reproduction springs up with great freedom on abandoned fields 

 during the process of shifting cultivation, the sites of former cultivation being 

 often marked by pure patches of Xylia. This indicates its partiality for new 

 soil, which favours the germination of the seed and the establishment of the 

 seedling, as in the case of the Bm-mese species, and its capacity for contending 

 successfully against the second-growth species which appear on abandoned 

 cultivation. 



Artificial reproduction. Little appears to have been done so far to 



1 Ind. Forester, xxxix (1!J13), p. 30. 



