520 XX\^I. COMBRETACEAE 



some time ; this form of straggling or bushy growth is characteristic of certain 

 other species of Terminalia, e. g. T. Arjuna and T. myriocarpa. 



The seedlings are fairly hardy against drought, but are more sensitive to 

 frost. They stand moderate side shade, but are intolerant of heavy overhead 

 shade ; in experimental plots at Dehra Dun it was found that few seedHngs 

 survived heavy shade more than one season, while all succumbed before the 

 end of the second season. The cotyledons are subject to the attacks of 

 birds, and the seedlings are browsed by deer and cattle and are uprooted by 

 pigs. 



In the forest, seedlings of Terminalia tomentosa often pass unrecognized, 

 since the leaves of young seedlings are very different from those of older 

 plants, the leaves being much smaller, more pointed, and more conspicuously 

 hairy. A characteristic featiu-e of seedlings of the first year is a swelling and 

 decided bend where the taproot joins the stem immediately below ground- 

 level, at the point where the seedling escaped from the hard fruit during 

 germination. 



SiLVicuLTURAL CHARACTERS. Terminalia tomentosa is a light-demander, 

 and is rapidly suppressed under shade. It cannot be called exacting as regards 

 soil, being found on a variety of soils, and sometimes on dry hills with poor 

 shallow soil. Although capable of existing on stiff clay better than most 

 species it does not follow that this type of soil suits it best, for its development 

 on deep well-drained soil is better. 



In years of severe drought the tree has proved decidedly tender. In the 

 abnormal droughts of 1899 and 1900 in the Indian Peninsula and 1907 and 

 1908 in Oudh it was badly affected, but in the latter case the sal suffered 

 more severely than it did. As regards frost, the leaves are readily killed, but 

 the damage is often more apparent than real, since the stems frequently 

 remain untouched when all the foliage is withered. Young plants are, how- 

 ever, often killed back in frosty localities. 



Young plants suffer less than sal from grazing, probably because they 

 lose their leaves in the hot season, at which time the sal plants send up succulent 

 young shoots. Mr. J. Best ^ describes a curious form of growth due to excessive 

 grazing in the Bhandara district of the Central Provinces. Considerable areas 

 are covered with plants up to 18 in. in height, much branched and stunted 

 in growth. On being dug up they are found to have a thick and distorted 

 stem at or just beneath ground surface. This stunted growth is attributed 

 more to trampling and hardening of the soil than to actual browsing, and it 

 is pointed out that on steep hills where cattle do not graze this stunted groAvth 

 is absent. 



The tree has a deep root-system. It sometimes produces root-suckers 

 where the roots are exposed, but as a rule sparingly. Trees up to medium size 

 generally coppice and pollard well, but the coppicing power of trees more 

 than about 4 ft. in girth is usually poor : stools of this size sometimes make 

 a dying effort by producing an immense mass of small coppice-shoots and 

 then succumb. In some districts, particularlj^ in parts of Chota Nagpm-, the 

 Central Provinces, and elsewhere the tree is regularlj^ pollarded for the growing 

 of tasar silk : in parts of Bombay it is extensively'- lopped for ash manure 



1 Ind. Forester, xxxv (1909), p. 612. 



