CARALLIA 505 



yironcha ranges (Haines), Western Ghats, Burma, chiefly in the moister parts 

 of Pegu and Tenasserim : also in Ceylon, China, the Malay Peninsula and 

 islands south to Australia. It is nowhere abundant, and is typical of moist 

 localities, occurring in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests and along streams 

 and moist shady ravines. In the Dehra Dun valley it is a constituent of true 

 swamp forest, where it is associated with Diospyros Efnbryopteris , Putranjiva 

 Roxburghii, Eugenia Jambolana, Ficus glomerata, Pterospermum acerifolium, 

 Cedrela Toona, Bischoffia javanica, Alhizzia procera, Trewia nudiflora, and 

 Calamus tenuis. In the Bengal Duars it occurs in moist evergreen and semi- 

 evergreen forest associated withDillenia indica, Michelia, Amoora, Dysoxylum, 

 Meliosma, Turpinia, Eugenia spp., Elaeocarpus spp., Garcinia spp., and several 

 Lauraceae. 



Bourdillon says it is common in all the evergreen forests of Travancore 

 up to 4,000 ft. Talbot says it is found throughout the tropical rain forests 

 of the Konkan and North Kanara. In Burma Kurz, in his Preliminary Report, 

 mentions that it is frequent in Pegu and Tenasserim up to 4,000 ft. on meta- 

 morphic rocks, sandstones, and permeable laterite, in evergreen tropical and 

 upper mixed forest ; it occurs also in the lower mixed forest where it verges 

 on evergreen forest. 



In its natural habitat the absolute maximum shade temperature varies 

 from 95 to 110F., the absolute minimum from 33 to 65 F., and the normal 

 rainfall from 50 to 200 in. or more. 



Flowering and fruiting. The small flowers with white petals, in 

 trichotomous cymes, appear from December to March, and the fruits ripen 

 about May-June. The fruit is globose, fleshy, 1-seeded, coriaceous. The seed 

 is 0-2-0-3 in. in diameter, compressed, shaped like a crescent in which the 

 horns are curled round to form an almost complete circle, reddish brown, 

 somewhat rough, with a fairly thick hard testa and a copious white albumen : 

 840-980 seeds weigh 1 oz. (samples from Burma). The seed is perishable, 

 and while on the ground is verj' liable to rot and to be attacked by insects. 

 It is difficult to explain the scattered distribution of the tree otherwise than 

 by the dissemination of the seeds by bird agency. 



Germination. Epigeous. The testa splits round the edge, the radicle 

 emerging through the opening so caused. The hypocotyl elongates by arching, 

 raising the cotyledons above ground ; the ends of the cotyledons remain 

 enclosed in the albumen of the seed for some little time before falling. 



The seedling. Seedlings cultivated at Dehra Dun showed slow develop- 

 ment during the first two seasons, reaching a height of l|-2 in. by the end of 

 the first season and 5-14 in. by the end of the second. In the earlier stages 

 the young plants suffered much from the attacks of crickets. During the third 

 and subsequent seasons growth was more vigorous, the height being 3 ft. 11 in. 

 at the end of the third season, and 7 ft. 8 in., with a basal girth of lO-gin., at 

 the end of the fifth season. The young plants were found to grow best under 

 slight shade on ground kept well watered but loose. They proved sensitive 

 to drought, but were not so frost-tender as might be expected from a tropical 

 evergreen species. 



Seedlings at Dehra Dun had two to three pairs of leaves by the end of 

 the first season, the cotyledons persisting until the end of the season. Side 



