PRELIMINARY MANIPULATION OF SEEDS. 143 



value, or there is no objection to thinning out the crowns of the 

 trees, branchlets of a certain thickness may he lopped and the 

 fruit then hand-picked from them. Some trees produce hunches 

 of fruit, the common stalk of which dries up at maturity and easily 

 disarticulates from the rest of the branchlet, the panicled fructifi- 

 cation of teak being a good instance in point. The present method 

 may be employed with such trees, both alone and also, when all 

 the fruit, although ripening more or less simultaneously, do not all 

 fall together, in combination with method (iii). 



ARTICLE 2. 

 PRELIMINARY MANIPULATION or THE FRUIT OR SEED. 



The fruit or seeds of many trees require to undergo some pre- 

 vious manipulation before the seed is in a fit condition to be sown 

 or stored up. Either (a) the seeds are enclosed in a fleshy pulp, e. g., 

 those of Dillenia, Schleichera trijuga, Artocarpus, Gmelina arborea, 

 Diospyros, Sfc. ; or (b) they are included in a capsule or pod, or be- 

 tween scales, e. g., those of Lagerstrcemia, Schrebera, Michelia, khair, 

 Hardwickia, babul, Coniferce, $c.; or (c) they are surrounded or 

 provided with .wings or with hairy appendages, which interfere 

 with their uniform distribution in sowing, as well as uselessly increase 

 their bulk and weight, e. g. the seeds of teak, of some Terminalias, 

 Pterocarpus Marsupium, elms, maples, pines, firs, poplars, willows, 

 &c. ; or (d) they are so full of moisture that they cannot be stored 

 up at once without becoming heated and fermenting, e. g., the seeds of 

 pines and firs, Anogeissus, Quercus incana, 8fc. ; or (e), although as 

 ripe as they can ever become on the parent tree, they would germi- 

 nate badly or after much delay if sown as soon as collected, e. g.^ 

 those of teak, Terminalia tomentosa and Arjuna, Pterocarpus Marsu- 

 pium, babul, ash, &c. 



(a). SEEDS ENCLOSED IN A FLESHY PULP. In many cases the 

 pulp may be got rid of by allowing it to rot, and then rubbing 

 it away or washing it off in large vats with abundance of water, 

 the contents of the vats being well worked about with strong rods 

 bound together broom-fashion. Edible fruit, such as that of Zizy- 

 phus, Diospyros, Buchanania, Schleichera, fyc., give no trouble ; 

 people who live in, or close to, the forest will bring in all the seed 

 required, in return merely for the privilege of collecting the fruit, 

 with occassionally a trifling money remuneration added. Some 

 kinds of fruit may also be given to goats and cattle, which eject 

 the seed when chewing the cud, e. g. Zizyplius, Terminalia lelerica 



