636 XXXIV. ERICACEAE 



but the tree is useful in covering hill slopes, and in the western Himalaya in 

 acting as a nurse to the deodar. It is fire-resisting and is not browsed by 

 cattle : the leaves are said to be poisonous to goats and camels. The racemes 

 of heath-hke white honey-scented flowers appear from April to June (western 

 Himalaya), and the capsules, containing numerous minute seeds, begin to ripen 

 about December, dehiscing from January to March. The tree coppices well, 

 the coppice growing faster than that of Quercus incana. Measurements in 

 1911 in a coppice coupe six years old at Bhowali near Naini Tal showed an 

 average of 8 shoots per stool and a mean height of 5 ft. 1 in., as compared 

 with 4 ft. 3 in. for the oak. Gamble gives the rate of growth as 12 to 18 rings 

 per inch of radius in the west, representing a mean annual girth increment 

 of 0-35 to 0-52 in., and about 6 rings in the east, representing a mean annual 

 girth increment of 105 in. 



ORDER XXXV. MYRSINACEAE 



AEGICERAS, Gaertn. 



Aegiceras majus, Gaertn. Syn. A. corniculata, Blanco. Vern. Kulsi, 

 Beng. ; Kanjala, Mar. ; Butalet, Burm. 



A large evergreen glabrous shrub or small tree with grey bark, common 

 in the mangrove forests along tidal creeks, where it is frequently gregarious. 

 It is one of the most widely distributed species of this formation, occurring 

 at the mouth of the Indus, along both sides of the Indian Peninsula, in the 

 Sundarbans and along the coasts of Chittagong, Arakan, Burma, and the 

 Andamans. Like the true mangroves this tree exhibits vivipary, the seed 

 germinating within the pericarp of the curved horn-shaped fruit. The tree 

 coppices Avell. The wood is used for small building material and for fuel. 



ORDER XXXVT. SAPOTACEAE 



An important order of forest trees, some furnishing useful timbers, others 

 edible flowers and fruits and oil-seeds, others latex of commercial value. The 

 two genera of most importance in Indian forestry are Bassia and Mimusops. 

 The gutta-percha of commerce is furnished by the latex of certain species of 

 Palaquium (syn. Dichopsis, Isonandra) and Payena, found in the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago ; both these genera are represented in India, 

 though none of the Indian species are known to yield gutta-percha of good 

 quality. The two most important gutta-percha producing species in the 

 Malayan region are Palaquium Gutta, Burck., and P. oblong if olium, Burck. 



An interesting account of the gutta-percha forests of the Malay States 

 is given in the Indian Forester, vol. xxxi (1905), p. 309, by Mr. A. M. Burn- 

 Murdoch, who points out that gutta-percha is derived almost entirely from 

 trees growing within 6 or 7 degrees of the Equator. Apart from the two species 

 of Palaquium already mentioned, gutta-percha of good quality is yielded by 

 Payena Laerii, which species, however, is not abrmdant. An inferior latex 

 is produced by Palaquium pudulatum. Pvcferring to P. Gutta, including 

 P. ohlow/ifolitun, which is very similar and is not always considered to be 



