530 XXVII. COMBRETACEAE 



4. Terminalia Arjiiua, Bedd. tSyn. T. glabra, W. and A. ; Pentaptera 

 Arjuna, Roxb. Vern. Arjun, arjima, hahua, koha, Hind. ; Savimadat, Mar. ; 

 HoIemaUi, Kan. ; Kula maruthu, Tarn. ; Thella maddi, Tel. (Fig. 204.) 



A large handsome tree, evergreen or nearly so, with trunk often buttressed, 

 a large crown and drooping branchlets. Bark smooth, exfoliating in thin 

 irregular sheets, green when newly exposed, turning light grey, pink inside ; 

 young bark with chlorophyll. The tree resembles T. tomentosa except for its 

 smooth bark, the narrower wings to the fruits, and the fact that it is charac- 

 teristic of the banks of streams. It sometimes attains an enormous girth. 

 Mr. J. C. McDonnell ^ records two trees 26 ft. and 32 ft. in girth at 5 ft. from 

 ground-level at the village of Manapur in Jammu. 



The wood is brown, very hard, used for building, agricultural imple- 

 ments, carts, and boats. The bark is used for tanning, and is much collected 

 for the purpose in Central India. A special blazing instrument is used 

 which strips off flakes of cortex without penetrating to and damaging the 

 cambium, and within two years the stripped patches are covered with a 

 thick new growth of cortex slightly lighter in colour than the original bark : 

 if the cambium is injured the wood blackens and no regrowth of cortex takes 

 place. 



Distribution v^nd habitat. Terminalia Arjwia is common throughout 

 the greater part of the Indian Peninsula along rivers, streams, ravines, and 

 dry watercourses, reaching a large size on fertile alluvial loam. It extends 

 northward to the sub-Himalayan tract, where it is locally distributed along 

 the banks of streams. It is common in Chota Nagpur, Central India, 

 the Central Provinces, and parts of the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, 

 extending south to Ceylon. It is often planted for shade or ornament 

 along roadsides and in avenues. In some localities it has escaped from 

 cultivation along streams, and is doubtfully indigenous. It is found naturally 

 in regions where the absolute maximum shade temperature varies from 

 100 to 118 F., the absolute minimum from 30 to 60 F., and the normal 

 rainfall from 30 to 70 in. ; as, however, its occurrence depends largely on the 

 moisture supplied by streams, its distribution is not governed by climatic 

 considerations alone. 



Leaf-shedding, flowering, and fruiting. The tree is evergreen or 

 nearly so, the new foliage appearing early in the hot season. The panicled 

 spikes of small white flowers appear from April to July, and the fruits ripen 

 the following February to May. The fruits (Fig. 202, a) are 1-2 in. long, 

 with a hard bony axis and five to seven wings 0-25-0-5 in. broad ; about 

 80-110 weigh 1 lb. As in T. tomentosa, the germinative power of the seed 

 is often indifferent. The tree flowers and fruits at an early age : a tree six 

 years old flowered and fruited abundantly at Dehra Dun in 1918. 



Germination (Fig. 202, h~J). Epigeous. The hard endocarp of the fruit 

 opens slightly and the radicle emerges. The hypocotyl elongates bj^ arching, 

 and the large foliaceous cotyledons, which are convolute in the seed, extricate 

 themselves and unroll. The hypocotyl straightens and still farther elongates, 

 carrying the cotyledons above ground ; at the same time the young shoot 

 emerges from between the two cotyledonary petioles. 



* Ind. Forester, xxix (1903), p. lo2. 



