302 CURIOUS OR USEFUL PLANTS. 



one or two inches high, they ought to be transplanted into other" 

 beds, at the distance of about six inches from each other, there td 

 remain until the beginning of the next year's rains, when they are 

 to be planted out to where they are to remain ; or they may, when 

 from two to four inches high, be planted out at once to where they 

 are to grow ; and it is not perfectly clear but by so doing they 

 succeed better ; as in taking up plants Of any considerable size, 

 say from one to two or more feet high, the roots are very apt to 

 be injured, particularly the sap root, which retards their growth 

 much, nay often kills them. 



" About Calcutta they thrive luxuriantly in most places where 

 they have been tried, and any tolerable degree of care taken of 

 them ; so that the only observations which seem necessary to be 

 made on this head, are to avoid sowing the seed, or planting in 

 such places as are low, or subject to be inundated ; to keep them 

 clear from weeds, and sparingly watered during dry weather, for 

 the first year only. In a good soil, not much overrun with that 

 coarse white-flowered grass, called by the natives woola (saccha- 

 rum), they will scarce require any cate whatever, after the first 

 six months, from the time of being planted out where they are to 

 stand. They will then be about eighteen months old, supposing 

 them to have been transplanted twice, and in that time they will, 

 in general, be from five to ten feet high, according as the soil is 

 favourable, and out of all danger, except from north-westers. 



" With respect to the distance at which plants ought to stand in 

 plantations, every one's judgment can direct. The oak requires 

 a great space, as the crooked parts thereof are the most valuable, 

 and required for the knees and other curved timber in ship-build- 

 ing ; but teak is naturally a straight-grained tree, and only used 

 in Bengal, or at least in general, for the straight work ; sissoo 

 being commonly employed for knees, and other crooked timber ; 

 hence it may be concluded, that the straighter the teak trees grow, 

 the more eligible for every purpose for which this timber is gene- 

 rally employed in Bengal. They do not, therefore, require to be 

 planted at a great distance ; suppose from six to ten feet, in quin- 

 cunx order; by being so close they grow straighter, and protect 

 one another while young, which is particularly wanted where 

 violent gusts of wind, such as our north. westers, prevail. When 

 the trees grow up, they can be thinned out to advantage, as the 



