6(30 XXXVIII. OLEACEAE 



observations on the natural reproduction of the wild olive. Germination 

 appears to take place about February, and the essential conditions for success- 

 ful reproduction are shade during youth and sufficient depth of fertile humus 

 soil. Mr. Coventry contrasts the absence of reproduction in the Kalachitta 

 and Khairimurat ranges of the Rawalpindi forest division, where the soil is 

 shallow, exposed, and denuded, Avith the satisfactor}^ reproduction observable 

 in parts of the Salt Range, where owing to more effective cover and more 

 favourable soil conditions natural seedlings are to be found in some quantity ; 

 these seedlings are always found under the shade of bushes or trees and in 

 pockets of good humus soil, never in the open or on shallow denuded soil. 

 The presence of olive trees in the former tract is accounted for by the fact 

 that these must have sprung up when the ground was well covered with 

 shrubs and trees and the soil had not become denuded, and the perpetuation 

 of the species has been effected by suckers and not by seedling reproduction. 



Artificial reproduction. The tree may be grown from seed sown 

 towards the end of the cold season in light porous mould, either in pots or 

 in raised nursery-beds ; the seedlings should be kept shaded and regularly 

 watered. The young plants may be planted out during the rainy season of 

 the following year, or, if irrigation is possible, in April. Direct sowings in 

 blanks always fail, but seed sown in fairly good soil under the shade of bushes 

 may have a reasonable chance of success. The tree can be grcwn successfully 

 from cuttings, pieces of mature wood about ^-1 in. in diameter being used : 

 it can also be raised successfully by transplanting root-suckers. 



Rate of growth. The growth is slow. The annual rings are not distinct, 

 but can sometimes be distinguished with approximate accuracy : by their aid 

 and by measurements of coppice-shoots, it is estimated in the Kalachitta 

 working plan that coppice attains a girth of 15 in. in about thirty years, and 

 this period has been adopted as the rotation for coppice fellings. Coppice- 

 shoots six years old in the Dartian reserved forest, Khanpur range, Hazara, 

 reached a height of 11 ft. and a girth of 4 in. at the base. Generally speaking, 

 it may be said that the more vigorous coppice-shoots grow for some years at 

 the rate of about 2 ft. per annum. 



2. Olea glandulifera, Wall. Vern. Gulili, gair, galdu, W. Him. 



A moderate-sized tree with a shady, broad, rounded crown and a short 

 bole. Wood hard, durable. Indigenous in the outer Himalaya, up to 6,000 ft., 

 usually in shady ravines and along rivers and streams ; Mothronwala swamp, 

 Dehra Dun. Gamble's specimens showed 12 to 33 rings per inch of radius, 

 or a mean annual girth increment of 0-19 to 0-52 in., which is slow. Brandis 

 mentions a section of a tree forty-three years old, grown in the Botanic Gardens, 

 Calcutta, which had 43 rings on a radius of 10 in., giving a mean annual girth 

 increment of 1-48 in., which shows that the growth under favourable conditions 

 may be fast. 



3. Olea dioica, Roxb. Vern. Karamba, Mar. 



A moderate-sized tree of the eastern Himalaj^a, Duars, Assam, Chittagong, 

 Western Ghats, southAvards to Travancore. in moist forests, both evergreen 

 and deciduous. Bourdillon says that in deciduous forest in Travancore it does 

 not attain more than 50 ft. in height, but in evergreen forest it reaches a height 

 of 100 ft. and a diameter of 2| ft. He gives the rate of growth as 5 rings per 



