596 XXIX. LYTHRACEAE 



acuminate, base acute, entire, glabrous, margins minuteW pubescent, venation 

 arcuate, lateral veins 4-10 pairs. 



The groAvth of the seedling is moderately fast. Young plants raised at 

 Dehra Dun reached a height of 4 in. in two months, and 12 in. by the end 

 of the year ; on poor ground the growth is slower. For its best development 

 the young plant requires a porous well-drained soil free from weeds. Young 

 seedlings are very frost-tender, unlike coppice-shoots, which resist frost fairly 

 well. They do not stand heavy shade or suppression from a dense growth of 

 grass. 



SiLVicuLTUEAL CHARACTERS. The tree is a light-demander, and soon 

 becomes suppressed under shade. It is fairly frost-hardy. In the abnormal 

 drought of 1907 and 1908 in the forests of Oudh it proved to be decidedly 

 hardy ; saplings, however, were affected in the severe drought of 1899 and 

 1900 in the Central Provinces. Cattle avoid it, and on heavily grazed areas 

 coppice-shoots often remain untouched after most of the other species have 

 disappeared : sometimes the presence of pure Lagerstroemia parviflora may be 

 the result of heavy grazing. 



The tree coppices and pollards vigorously. Experiments were carried 

 out in 1909 in North Chanda, Central Provinces, in which trees were coppiced 

 in successive months from April to September ; in no month did a single stool 

 fail to coppice, a result not attained by any other species experimented with. 

 Again, Mr. A. E. Osmaston ^ records complete success in the case of 25 trees 

 coppiced in experiments in the Gorakhpur district. United Provinces. The 

 f olloAving numbers of shoots per stool have been measured in the United 

 Provinces : 



1. Gorakhpur district : age one to sixteen years ; average !() to 3-2 shoots 



per stool. 



2. Gonda district : age one and two years ; average 1-7 to 2-7 shoots per 



stool. 



Natural reproduction. The natural reproduction of this tree requires 

 further study. As far as is known, fertile seed is not produced in abundance 

 every year, though in certain years reproduction springs up in quantity. 

 Loose porous bare soil appears to favour natural reproduction- which often 

 comes up readily on abandoned cultivation on well-drained ground, and on 

 riverain alluvial gravel which has lisen above river-level. Immunity from 

 damage by grazing anrl good power of recovery from the effects of lire and 

 mutilation are factors which favour the natural reproduction of this species : 

 the admission of light also stimulates it. 



81LVICULTURAL treatment. As a rule this tree is treated as an acces- 

 sory to species of greater value, such as teak or sal, and its treatment is sub- 

 ordinated to that of the j)rincipal species. It is eminently adapted for 

 working as coppice, a rotation of thirty years being generally sufficient for 

 the production of poles for building purposes. 



Rate of growth. 1 . High forest. The following residts of girth measure- 

 ments in sample plots are available : 



1 Ind. Forester, xxxvii (1911), p. 429. 



