HOLARRHENA 667 



SiLvicuLTURAL CHARACTERS. The tree stands a slight amount of shade, 

 but develops best in full light. In the abnormal drought of 1907 and 1908 

 in the forests of Oudh it proved to be decidedly hardy. It is sensitive to 

 frost, but has good powers of recovery from the base when killed down, and 

 may often be found in abundance persisting on grassy areas subject to severe 

 frost. It is not readily browsed, even by goats. It copjDices well, and shoots up 

 readily after severe damage by fire. It produces root-suckers in abundance. 



Natural reproduction. Under natural conditions germination takes 

 place during the rainy season, chiefly at the beginning of that season. In 

 their earlier stages many seedlings are destroyed by drought, and frost often 

 keeps the young growth back. Nevertheless this species regenerates mth 

 great freedom, omng partly to its regular and abundant seeding from an early 

 age, partly to its comparative immunity from damage by grazing, and partly 

 to its power of recovery from injury of all kinds. In the open grass-lands so 

 common in sal forests it often ajipears in great abundance with flre-protection, 

 and is a most useful nurse for the sal seedlings, which appear underneath it 

 and gradually make their way through it. 



Artificial reproduction. The tree can be raised artificially without 

 difficulty both by direct sowing and by transplanting from the nursery. 

 Experiments at Dehra Dun have showai that great success can be attained 

 by line sowings along with field crops, ]3rovided that a strip about 2 ft. wide 

 is kept clear of field crops along the line, the crops being sown in the inter- 

 vening spaces ; regular weeding along the lines is necessary during the first 

 two or three years, and loosening of the soil from time to time is advantageous ; 

 as the seedlings are ajjt to form a dense line they should be thinned out 

 periodically. 



For transplanting purposes seed should be sown in the nursery in March 

 or early April : the seedlings ordinarily appear in two or three weeks, and 

 are ready for transjalanting in the first rainy season. 



Rate of growth. High forest sample plots in the United Provinces 

 show mean annual girth increments of 0-05, 0-12, 0-13, 0-14, 0-28, and 0-41 in., 

 but these figures are probably misleading, as they refer chiefly to smaU-sized 

 trees in sal sample plots, and have evidently been thoroughly suppressed, in 

 the first four instances at all events. A cross-section from the United Provinces 

 in the silvicultural museum at Dehra Dun had 60 rings for a girth of 3 ft. 6 in., 

 giving a mean annual girth increment of 0-7 in. Gamble's specimens showed 

 7 to 8 rings per inch of radius, giving a mean annual girth increment of 0-78 

 to 0-9 in. 



Various coppice measurements have been recorded. Measurements made 

 in 1911 in Gonda, United Provinces, gave an average height of 5-1 ft. as against 

 4-7 ft. for sal in a coupe one year old, and 6-8 and 5 ft. as against 10 and 7-6 ft. 

 for sal in two coupes two years old. Measurements by Mr. A. F. Broun in 

 1886 in a coppice coupe nine years old near Dehra Dun gave an average height 

 of 15-5 ft. as against 16 ft. for sal, and an average girth of 8 in. as against 

 8-6 in. for sal. 



Measurements made in 1910 by Mr. C. M. McCrie in coppice coupes in 

 the Gorakhpur district, United Provinces, gave the following results for 

 HolarrJieyia as compared with sal : 



