TERMINALIA 525 



for it is in low-lying badly drained ground, where sal cannot gain a footing, 

 that Terminalia chiefly springs up. 



The fruits fall for the most part before or during the season of fires, and 

 this fact has been held to be a preventive of reproduction owing to the destruc- 

 tion of the fruit. In the case of severe fires the germinative power of the seed 

 is possibly destroyed, but in the case of light fires it is difhcult to believe, in 

 the absence of definite tests, that the hard endocarp is not a sufficient pro- 

 tection to the seed. 



In some localities, particularly in the Indian Peninsula, the plants assume 

 a low bushy growth only a few feet high, which they may maintain for several 

 years before they commence to grow up. Haines notes that the ultimate 

 stem is a sympodium, arising not from the apex of one of the shoots but from 

 a bud lower down. The cause of this bushy growth is not always definitely 

 known, but probably it is due to more causes than one. Excessive grazing, 

 and more probably trampling, have already been noted as a cause. Frost 

 certainly produces this growth, for it has been noticed to be prevalent in 

 frosty hollows where the stems are killed back annually. Fire and suppression 

 are other possible causes, while on the analogy of the dying back of sal this 

 abnormal growth may perhaps be due in some cases to want of soil moisture, 

 to stiffness or hardness of the soil, or to some other unfavourable soil factor, 

 such as bad soil- aeration. It has been suggested that rich soil and absence 

 of weeds may be possible causes of this form of growth ; if this be the case 

 these factors certainly do not always cause it. Mr. P. M. Lushington mentions 

 that the pruning of all but the strongest shoot may result in a leader being 

 formed. 



Artificial repeoduction. Direct sowings, as well as transplanting from 

 the nursery during the first rains, before the taproot has reached any great 

 length, prove quite successful. In order to ensure regular weeding at small 

 cost sowing in lines is preferable to other forms of sowing ; in order to allow 

 for indifferent germination the fruits should be sown fairly close together, at 

 intervals of about 6 in., superfluous plants being afterwards transplanted to 

 fill gaps in the lines. Line sowings with field crops have proved successful 

 on an experimental scale, the lines being kept clear of crops to a width of 

 about 2 ft. Pit sowings to fill up blanks have proved successful in Bombay. 

 Sowing should be carried out before the early rains, the soil being worked up 

 and the fruits lightly covered. As a rule 1 lb. of fruits will suffice for 100-120 ft. ' 

 of line. In the nursery the fruits should be sown not long after they ripen, 

 about March-April, and if the beds are regularly watered and weeded the 

 seedlings should be ready for transplanting early in the rainy season. In 

 Bombay the fruits are sown on a layer of leaves and grass in order to raise 

 them from the ground and prevent them from rotting : the seed germinates 

 readily after a good fall of rain, and the seedlings are easy to lift without 

 damage to the root if the sowing is done on leaves.^ 



Mr. R. Bourne informs me that in Malabar he has obtained the best 

 results in germination by sowing the seeds in seed-beds divided into squares 

 surrounded by small mud walls, so that when the beds are flooded the water 

 stands in them for some time. 



1 R. S. Pearson in Ind. Forester, xxxi (1905), p. 170. 



