INTRODUCTORY. 25 



when the usual jungle fires have ceased, and which sprout 

 almost immediately on their reaching the ground. On the 

 other hand, the Teak seeds after the rainy season, and the 

 seeds themselves are covered by a hard shell, which must* 

 be decomposed by long exposure to moisture and heat 

 before they will germinate. This necessitates their exposure 

 throughout one hot season, when the whole of the grass 

 covering the ground below is burnt in the annual conflagra- 

 tions. Thus a large per centage of the seeds of the Teak never 

 germinate at all. It is clear then, that if these two species 

 were growing together, on soil equally suitable for both, the 

 Sal must possess an immense advantage in the " struggle for 

 life " over the Teak. And if to this natural advantage be 

 added an adventitious one, in the fact that the Teak is much 

 more generally useful to man particularly to man in a 

 primitive state as is really the case, there seems to be a 

 sufficient reason why the Teak should disappear before its rival 

 in tracts where the latter has obtained a footing and is equally 

 suitable to the soil and climate. Now an examination of the 

 tracts on which these trees are found in Central India shows 

 that, while the Teak does not appear to shun any particular 

 geological formation, it thrives best on the trap soils which 

 predominate in the south and west of the province. But the 

 Sal, on the other hand, clearly shuns the trap formation 

 altogether. Not only is it unknown within the great trappean 

 area to the west of the eightieth degree of longitude, but even 

 to the east of that line, in its own peculiar region, it does not 

 grow where isolated areas of the trap rocks are found. 

 Further I believe that in no part of India where this tree 

 grows is there any of the trap formation. With the exception 

 only of this volcanic rock the Sal appears to thrive on any 

 other formation, being equally, abundant within its own area, 



