ADINA 619 



but remain in a bushy condition with repeated browsing. In some localities 

 bison and sambhar do much damage by barking sapUngs. The tree coppices 

 readily up to a moderate size, producing numbers of shoots, chiefly from the 

 base of the stool. 



Natural reproduction. The minute seeds, shed during the hot season, 

 are often carried to a distance by the wind ; in some cases the fruit-heads 

 fall before all the seed is shed, and the seed may germinate within the fruit- 

 heads. Germination takes place early in the rainy season. The seeds are 

 produced in vast numbers, but the proportion of seedlings which survive and 

 establish themselves is relatively very small. The chief reasons for this are : 

 first, that the minute seeds and young seedlings are very liable to be washed 

 away and so perish ; and second, that the seedlings in their early stage are 

 very delicate. It is often recorded that the natural reproduction of this 

 species is almost entirely absent ; this is, however, far from being the case, 

 and such statements are probably as a rule the result of failure to recognize 

 the seedlings. 



For successful germination under natural conditions bare ground appears 

 to be essential, whereas for the successful estabhshment of the young seedling 

 it is necessary that the seeds, or perhaps even the young seedlings, should be 

 washed up out of the reach of floods during the first rainy season, and find 

 a lodgement in a well-drained situation where the seedhngs are not liable to 

 be inundated or washed away. Seedlings have actually been observed in 

 greater or less abundance in the following situations : (1) on small landslips 

 on hill slopes ; young plants of all ages are often found on such ground at 

 the base of the outer Himalaya ; (2) in loose earth and debris at the base 

 of the hills ; where this material is washed out over natural well-drained 

 terraces seedlings are often plentiful, and this no doubt explains the origin 

 of the many large old trees found on the boulder terraces at the foot of the 

 Himalaya ; (3) on well-drained alluvial ground near rivers, and on flat ground 

 generally, always provided the ground is bare and not covered with weeds 

 when the seed germinates ; on such ground seedlings may often be found in 

 plenty on small natural humps or mounds, or round the bases of trees or 

 termite heaps, where the seeds or young seedlings have been stranded during 

 the rains ; as many as eight small seedlings were counted in the slightly raised 

 earth round the base of one sal tree on flat ground in the Gorakhpur forests, 

 United Provinces ; (4) on abandoned cultivation, for instance in taungya 

 clearings in Burma, where natural reproduction often springs up m quantity ; 

 (5) on the sides of walls, embankments, and ditches ; on the side of the 

 boundary trench romid the Birpur forest rest-house, Gonda, United Provinces, 

 were observed numerous saplings sprung from seed washed on to the sides 

 of the trench, probably on new ground when the trench was made ; (6) round 

 the edges of natural tanks and depressions where water lodges during the 

 rains, the seeds being washed up out of the reach of floods and stranded ; 

 (7) on the sites of old charcoal kilns ; seedhngs often appear on these owing 

 to the good drainage afforded ; (8) occasionally in the form of epiphytes in 

 forks of or hollows in trees ; (9) in clefts in rocks ; a seedhng U ft. high and 

 probably a few years old was found growing tightly wedged in a crack in 

 a large sandstone boulder where there was no soil. 



