ANOGEISSUS 541 



in the rainy season is unsuccessful. In an experimental coppice area in North 

 Khandesh, Bombay, in 1903, the percentage of felled trees which yielded 

 coppice-shoots was 60, the number of shoots per stool varying from 2 to 7. 

 In experiments carried out by Mr. E. Marsden in the United Provinces pol- 

 larding was found to give better results than coppicing for the production 

 of young leaves and twigs for tanning ; the best season for pollarding was 

 found to be not later than March, and the best results were obtained from 

 branchy trees, girth being of less importance than branchiness for the pro- 

 duction of numerous shoots. 



Natural reproduction. The natural reproduction of this tree is not 

 yet fully understood. Seedlings come up naturally, often in abundance, on 

 newly exposed well-drained ground on stony hill-sides, on landslips, on aban- 

 doned cultivation, on open grassy areas as well as on alluvial ground. Repro- 

 duction is always best, however, where the drainage is perfect, dense crops 

 of saplings appearing on the well- drained slopes, of hills and on sandy or 

 gravelly soil. Light is undoubtedly an important factor in the establishment 

 of natural reproduction, which is often plentiful in open gaps and bare places, 

 but the Bombay experiments described below under ' artificial reproduction ' 

 would indicate that shade and moisture are favourable to successful germina- 

 tion. Absence of weed-growth is also favourable, for the seedlings are very 

 intolerant of suppression by weeds, and it is noteworthy that good reproduction 

 has been observed to spring up on burnt areas, though its ultimate establish- 

 ment is favoured by protection from fire and excessive grazing. 



The want of fertility of the seed does not accord with the fact that 

 reproduction often springs up in dense masses on well-drained hill-sides, and 

 Mr. R. S. Pearson ^ has advanced a theory to explain this fact. Having noticed 

 in the Panch Mahals that reproduction appeared in even-aged masses differing 

 from each other by definite intervals of years, as determined by counting 

 rings on cut seedlings and saplings, he ascertained that the years in which 

 reproduction took place were those following on years of deficient rainfall. 

 He surmised therefore that whereas under normal conditions the tree produces 

 little or no fertile seed, the production of fertile seed is stimulated by years 

 of drought. This theory is well worth following up by fertility tests of seeds 

 carried out annually for a series of years, including seasons of good and of 

 deficient rainfall, the results so obtained being supplemented by comparative 

 observations of the state of reproduction in the forest. 



Mr. A. K. DesSii ^ notes that seedlings sprang up in great abundance on 

 flat grass-covered ground in the Panch Mahals as a result of the opening out 

 of the forests by the removal of dead timber killed by the drought of 1899-1900. 

 If Mr. Pearson's theory be correct, the production of fertile seed as a result 

 of the drought might be considered to be the rnain factor which induced this 

 reproduction. 



Mr, H. Tireman^ remarks on the profuse reproduction of Anogeissus 

 which springs up and establishes itself in the Coorg forests on the removal, 

 after burning, of the dense growth of lantana which infests them. The 

 germination of the seed is evidently favoured by the clean bare soil under 



1 ;Ind. Forester, xxxiii (1907), p. 231. - Ihid., xxxiv (1908), p. 15. 



3 ii^id^^ xlii(1916), p. 390. 



