TECTONA 719 



coppiced did not show a single shoot that had not sprung up in contact with 

 the stools. Besides this, on many occasions when I have met with young teak 

 plants that from their position to trees near them looked like suckers, I have 

 had them carefully dug round and have invariably found their roots entii-ely 

 distinct from those of the suspected parent trees.' 



So far as direct evidence goes at present, then, it may be said that teak 

 does not possess the tendency to throw up true root-suckers at a distance from 

 the parent stem, and that the so-called ' suckers ' which spring from low down 

 on the stumjD, at its junction with the main lateral roots, although they may 

 in certain cases bear a close resemblance to true root-suckers, should more 

 correctly be regarded as stool-shoots. True root-suckers, such as those of 

 Dalbergia Sissoo, Butea j'rondosa, Oroxylmn indicum, and many other trees, if 

 they are produced by the teak, must be of rare or local occurrence. 



Natural reproduction. The natural reproduction of teak has been the 

 subject of numerous experiments and observations which enable us to arrive 

 at certain conclusions regarding the effects of various factors, favourable or 

 otherwise, which bear on it. Our knowledge of the subject, however, is by 

 no means complete, and much detailed research still remains to be done. The 

 factors influencing natural reproduction may be considered under three heads : 

 (1) spread of seed, (2) factors influencing germination, and (3) factors influencing 

 the survival and development of the seedling. 



(1) Spread of seed. Under natural conditions the fruits begin to fall in 

 the cold season, about December or January, and continue falling during the 

 ensuing hot season. On more or less level ground they fall and remain under 

 and around the trees until, if conditions are favourable, germination takes 

 place. On hill-sides where there is an insufficient soil-covering of grass or 

 other plants to hold them up, many fruits are washed down the slopes early 

 in the rainy season. The chief transporting agency of teak seed is water, and 

 this accounts in part for the fact that teak often springs up gregariously on 

 alluvial flats, whither the fruits are conveyed in the season of floods and 

 deposited in quantity. 



(2) Factors influencing gerinination. Given a sufficient degree of moisture, 

 the chief factor influencing germination is temperature ; soil-aeration is 

 a probable factor, while certain other factors are brought into play in con- 

 nexion with the burying of the seed. 



(i) Temjierature. A temperature sufficiently high to induce ready ger- 

 mination may be produced either by the heat of the sun or by fire. In cool 

 shady places teak seed germinates with difficulty or not at all, and may lie 

 dormant for years, eventually germinating in quantity as soon as the direct 

 rays of the sun are admitted to the ground by the opening of the canopy and 

 the clearing of undergrowth. This is amply demonstrated by the regenerative 

 operations in the Mohnyin forest described on p. 752 and by some of the 

 examples quoted below. Mention may also be made of an experiment carried 

 out by Mr. Hole at Dehra Dun.^ Seed was sown on July 2, 1913, in two 

 adjacent plots, one open to the sun and rain, the other completely shaded 

 from the sun but receiving all the rain which fell : the percentage of germina- 

 tion was 17 in the former and 1 in the latter. After two years the open plot 



1 Ind. Forester, xlii (1916), p. 51. 



