STEPHEGYNE G23 



attained by the end of the season, and usually about two pairs of foliage leaves 

 being produced. 



SiLVicuLTURAL CHARACTERS. In eaily youth the tree stands a certain 

 amount of shade, seedlings and saplings being often found under cover, but 

 later it is a Hght-demander : as in the case of Adina cordifolia, saplings are 

 sensitive to the rubbing of their leading shoots by overhead trees. As already 

 mentioned, the tree is capable of growing on badly-drained ground, but its 

 growth suffers in such places. It is fairly hardy against drought, having 

 suffered only to a sKght extent in the abnormal droughts of 1907 and 1908 

 in Oudh, and 1899 and 1900 in the Indian Peninsula. The tree coppices well 

 up to a moderate size. In some locaHties bison are apt to damage poles of 

 this species by stripping the bark off them. 



Natural reproduction. So far as the natural reproduction of this tree 

 has been studied, the conditions influencing it appear to be very similar to 

 if not identical with those affecting the reproduction of Adina cordifolia. As 

 in the case of the latter species, the minute seeds are scattered in the hot 

 season, some remaining in the fruit -heads and germinating in them after they 

 fall to the ground, and reproduction springs up in places similar to those in 

 which Adina cordifolia reproduction appears, seedUngs of the two species being 

 often found together. The survival of reproduction on badly-drained ground 

 is, however, more marked than in the case of Adina. Natural reproduction 

 sometimes comes up fairly freely on abandoned cultivation. 



Artificial reproduction. According to experiments carried out at 

 Dehra Dun, the most satisfactory method of raising this tree artificially is in 

 boxes, the procedure followed being exactlj'- the same as that described for 

 Adina cordifolia (p. 620). 



Rate of growth. The following results are available of high forest 

 sample plot measurements in the Singhbhum forest division, Chota Nagpur : 



Stephegyne parvifolia : girth increments in high forest sample plots, 



Singhbhum. 



A cross-section 3 ft. 10 in. in girth in the silvicultural museum at Dehra 

 Dun showed 61 rings, representing a mean annual girth increment of 0-75 in. 

 Gamble's specimens showed 5 to 15, averaging 9, rings per inch of radius, 

 representing mean annual girth increments of 0-42 to 1-26, averaging 0-7 in., 

 which is moderate. 



Coppice measurements made in 1910 by Mr. C. M. McCrie in the Gorakhpur 

 district, United Provinces, gave the following results for Stephegyyie as com- 

 pared with sal : 



