610 XXIX. LYTHRACEAE 



and survives which is lucky enough to fall just before a several days' period 

 of continuous wet weather.^ 



The most successful way in which to grow the plant artificially is to sow 

 the seeds in broken bricks ; on ordinary seed-beds it is very difficult to obtain 

 germination and to raise seedlings. The plant coppices well ; coppice-shoots 

 five years old in the Gorakhpur district, United Provinces, averaged 10 ft. :} in. 

 in height. 



5. PUNICA, Linn. 



Puuica (iranatum, Linn. Pomegranate. Vern. Anar,^ Hind. ; Dharu, 

 daruna, Pb. 



A deciduous shrub or small tree, indigenous in Persia and Afghanistan ; 

 wild and probably indigenous in Hazara, where it is very common and often 

 gregarious on dry rocky ground on the limestone of the outer hill ranges at 

 3,000-5,000 ft., often associated with Olea cuspidata ; also found in the Kagan 

 valley up to 6,000 ft. on dry hill-sides. It is widely cultivated for the sake 

 of its fruit, and is frequently found as an escape from cultivation, particiilarly 

 in the Himalaya, where it ascends to 7,000 ft. and where it sometimes forms 

 dense crops on the gravel and boulder deposits in the beds of dry ravines and 

 similar places. It is cultivated from seed or from cuttings. In the Himalaya 

 it flowers chiefly from April to July, and the fruits ripen from July to October. 



ORDER XXX. SAMYDAOEAE 

 Genera I. Casearia, Jacq. ; 2. Homalifm, Jacq. 



1. CASEARIA, Jacq. 



Species 1. C. tomentosa, Roxb. ; 2. C. glomerata, Roxb. 



1. Casearia tomentosa, Roxb. Vern. Chilla, bheri, Hind. ; Modi, Mar. 



A small deciduous tree with spreading branches, tomentose leaves, and 

 small greenish flowers clustered in the axils of the leaves. The wood is of 

 little use, but the tree is common in the sub-Himalayan tract and the Indian 

 Peninsula in deciduous forests, open scrub jungles, and waste lands. It often 

 owes its abundance to its immunity from damage by grazing. It is very 

 drought-hardy, as was shovm in the abnormal drought of 1907 and 1908 in 

 Oudh, It suffered much in the severe frost of 1905 in northern India, but 

 apparently has good powers of recovery, since it is frequent in grassy blanks 

 subject to annual frosts. The tree coppices well. The rate of growth in high 

 forest is slow, sample plots in sal forest in the United Provinces showing mean 

 annual girth increments of 0-09, 0-19, 0-22, and 0-34 in. Coppice-shoots grow 

 more rapidly. Measurements made in 1911 in a coppice coupe one year old 

 in the Tikri forest, Gonda, LTnited Provinces, showed an average height of 

 4-5 ft. as against 4-7 ft. for sal. Measurements made in 1910 by Mr. McCrie 

 in coppice coupes in Gorakhpur, United Provinces, showed the following 

 results for Casearia tornentosa and sal respectively : 



^ Inspection note, P<alivinau, 1915. 



