714 XLVI. VERBENACEAE 



some interesting observations on the quality of teak saplings in fire -protected 

 and unprotected forests of a dry type in the Zigon and Thayetmyo forest 

 divisions of Burma. In the protected forests most of the saplings were forked 

 and many were crooked, while many suffered from injury by wind, temporary 

 suppression, and other causes, and had wounds which persisted. In the 

 unprotected forests such weakly shoots were removed by fire, and the shoots 

 resulting from the regrowth were nearly always remarkably clean and vigorous, 

 defying fire and all competitors. 



An unexpected result was obtained in an experiment commenced in the 

 Bhamo district. Upper Burma, in 1900. Two plots of forest were selected 

 near each other ; the growth on either was similar, consisting of numerous 

 young teak trees with bamboos (Cephalostachyum pergracile in flower and 

 Dendrocalarnus membranaceus) and thekke grass {Imperata arundinacea). One 

 plot, 6 acres in extent, was then fire -protected continuously after 1900, while 

 the other, 5 acres in extent, was allowed to burn each year. By 1908 the 

 condition of the plots was totally different. In the fire-protected plot there 

 was a dense mass of bamboos, while in the burnt plot there were scarcely any. 

 Measurements of about 100 teak stems in each plot showed a girth increment 

 43 per cent, greater in the burnt than in the fire-protected plot, the explanation 

 being that in the former the crop was kept more open than in the latter, in 

 which a dense growth of bamboos and inferior species was encouraged, to the 

 detriment of the development of the teak trees. This experiment can hardly 

 be regarded as conclusive in itself, but similar experiments in other localities 

 might throw more light on what may prove to be a question of some 

 importance. 



Teak is not so readily browsed as most of its companions, and resists the 

 effects of grazing better than they do. Mr. J. W. Best ^ alludes to a stunted 

 and shrubby growth in heavily grazed areas in the Bhandara district, Central 

 Provinces, but this is attributed to the hardening of the soil by continued 

 trampling rather than to actual browsing. Heavy grazing may be decidedly 

 harmful in young coppice areas, as the coppice -shoots are soft and easily 

 broken or trampled down by cattle. 



In resisting the effects of mechanical injury of any kind the teak shows 

 remarkable vitality. In village forest lands in the Indian Peninsula the last 

 remnants of a former forest are often represented by a scrubby growth of 

 teak, the last surviving species in the process of lopping, cutting, burning, 

 and grazing. On annually cleared fire-lines, again, teak coppice -shoots persist 

 longer than those of most other species. In some localities teak owes its 

 survival in part to the fact that as a ' royal tree ' it has received special pro- 

 tection for a long period of years, but apart from this it owes its prevalence 

 in many places where it constitutes the bulk of the growing stock to its great 

 X)ower of resistance to the effects of hacking, burning, and grazing. 



Teak suffers from various forms of injury by animals. In the Peninsula 

 rats multiply in certain years and do considerable damage in plantations by 

 gnawing the roots. Pigs also do much damage in some parts of the Peninsula 

 by rooting up seedlings, particularly in plantations, where the newly -dug earth 

 attracts th(i animals. In Burma much damage is done in some localities by 



Ind. Forester, xxxv (1{)()9), p. 613. 



