EUCALYPTUS 575 



The vitality of the stools is considerable, for there are several coupes in the 

 Nilgiris already in their fourth rotation, the last two rotations being ten years 

 and the first generally longer, and the stools are apparently as vigorous as 

 ever. The young coppice-shoots grow rapidly, reaching a height of 3 or 4 ft. 

 or more in a few months. Fig. 216 shows a young coppice coupe, with the 

 characteristic opposite pale bluish green primordial leaves, and Figs. 217 and 

 218 show older coppice coupes of the grass-land type, where there is little 

 undergrowth except grass. The extremely rapid growth of coppice on shola- 

 land is shown in Fig. 219, which represents coppice four years old and 45 ft. 

 liigh. The young coppice-shoots thin themselves out rapidly, the average 

 number per stool at five years of age being about 3, while even up to twenty- 

 five years of age it varies ordinarily from 2 to 3. 



The dimensions attained by individual trees in the Nilgiris may be 

 exemplified by the following measurements made by me in 1912, it being 

 understood that where the age is unknown none of the trees can be more 

 than sixty-nine years old : (1) Woodside, isolated tree, age unknown, girth 

 19 ft. 2 in., height 138 ft. ; (2) Tudor Hall, more or less isolated, age unknown, 

 girth 12 ft. 7 in., height 150 ft. ; (3) Brooklands plantation, age fifty years, 

 trees in open crop, rather branchy, without much height-growth, maximum 

 girth measured 15 ft. 1 in. In 1905 Mr. Cowley-Brown measured a tree on the 

 Woodcot estate fifty-one years of age with a height of 106 ft. and a girth of 

 18 ft. 10 in. 



Excellent growth is also shown in the high forest plantations of the 

 Nilgiris, but as most of these have not been regularly thinned and have become 

 congested, the girth increment and volume production are not what they 

 would otherwise have been. Figs. 220 and 221 show two typical high forest 

 plantations of very good quality, the former (Aramby) tliinned and the latter 

 (Mutinad) in need of thinning. In the former particularly the dimensions 

 attained are remarkable ; the age in 1912 was forty-nine years, the average 

 and maximum girths were 6 ft. 9 in. and 11 ft. 6 in. respectively, and the 

 average and maximum heights were 175 and 185 ft. respectively. The 

 Aramby plantation consists of standards in former coppice-with-standards, 

 and the trees have had free growing space throughout the greater part of 

 their life. 



A series of measurements in coppice and high forest crops was carried out 

 in the same year in the blue gum plantations of the Nilgiris, and the results 

 are summarized below.^ The coppice figures may be regarded as giving a very 

 fair general average, since they are based on numerous measurements in crops 

 of various ages : the high forest figures, however, are given for individual 

 crops only, since the number of crops of different ages was insufficient 

 to give general averages, while the absence of regular thinnings in the 

 past prevents a true idea of the development of most of the crops being 

 arrived at : 



^ See my note on the Blue Gum Plantations of the Nilgiris, Ind. For. Records, vol. v, pt. ii, 

 1913. 



