PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS. 5 



36. To STOCK or CROP any piece of ground means to cover it 

 with forest growth. The terms to RESTOCK or RECROP are used 

 when the area in question has once been under forest. 



37. A CANOPIED FOREST or CROP denotes a collection of trees, 

 whatever their age, the crowns of which meet. 



The LEAF-CANOPY is the mass of foliage formed by the crowns 

 of the trees of a canopied forest. It is often useful or necessary to 

 distingusish roughly the degree of closeness of this mass of foliage. 

 Hence we may say (i) that the leaf-canopy is COMPLETE, when the 

 branches interlace or meet every where and form an unbroken 

 mass of foliage ; (ii) that it is OPEN, when the crowns, although 

 they meet, do not touch each other at every point; and (iii) that it 

 is INTERRUPTED, when there are appreciable intervals between the 

 crowns. In the first case, only diffused sun-light can enter the forest 

 below the mass of crowns; in the second case, direct sun-light will 

 also pass through, but in small, more or less uniformly distributed 

 patches; while in the third and last case, the ground will be more 

 or less completely exposed to the direct rays of the sun. 



38. The DENSITY of a crop signifies the degree of closeness of 

 the growth constituting it, and is hence a double function of the 

 number of the component stems and the degree of completeness of 

 the leaf-canopy. 



39. When a forest is composed entirely, or almost entirely, of a 

 single species, other species, when any exist, being found principally 

 only as brushwood or inferior undergrowth, it is said to be PURE. 

 Such are many of the numerous large stretches of babul, of tamarisk, 

 of Pinus lonyifolia, of sal, of ffardwickia, &c. 



40. When the forest consists essentially of two or more species 

 growing together in varying proportions, it is said to be MIXED. 



41. A GREGARIOUS species is one which has a tendency to form 

 more or less extended masses of pure forest as, for example, sal, 

 sissu, Pinus lonyifolia, &c. Such species may also be called EX- 

 CLUSIVE ; and as distinguished from them, those trees which occur 

 only in mixed forest, may be termed SPORADIC or SOCIABLE, such as 

 Dalbergia latifolia, Adlna cordifolia, &c. 



42. A REGULAR crop is one in which the leaf-canopy, besides 

 being complete, is formed by trees of almost one and the same age 

 and size. An IRREGULAR crop, on the other hand, is one in which 

 the leaf-canopy may or may not be complete, but is formed by trees 

 of very various ages and sizes. 



