xxii INTRODUCTION 



culatus, Hardicickia binata to get and retain the upper hand over other 

 species and to form pure forests, are by no means fully understood. 

 In connexion with this subject the coincidence in some cases of 

 periodical flowering and gregarious habit should be mentioned (Bamboos, 

 Strobilanthes, cf. Brandis in Ind. For. XXV. 1). The nature of the reserve 

 materials which nourish the germinating seedling, starch in bamboos, oil in 

 the cotyledons of Bassia and the endosperm of the Coco nut, the horny 

 substance (cellulose) of the endosperm in Coffea and other Bubiacece and in 

 Phoenix, is by no means known of all Indian trees. Many woody climbers, 

 but not all to the same extent, yield, when cut like the vine in Europe in 

 spring, large quantities of watery fluid, and the joints of many bamboos at a 

 certain age are full of water. An accurate record on the spot of observations 

 on these and other important biological matters will prove to be of real value. 

 What is required in the first instance is an accurate record of facts, on 

 the ground of which general conclusions can be framed hereafter. 



A thorough study of the life, the habits and the requirements of trees will 

 be found to be of great assistance in devising measures for guarding against 

 diseases and other calamities, and for gradually increasing the annual yield of 

 timber and other forest produce per acre. It is chiefly when an unexpected 

 and unexplained calamity arises, such as the Spike disease in sandal wood, 

 that the forester feels the need of a more intimate acquaintance with the life 

 of trees. 



There is a class of shrubs which I am disposed to call plants of mountain 

 torrents, and which merit the attention of those who are likely to use this 

 book. The following may here be mentioned as instances : Camellia caduca, 

 Bhazya striata, Bliabdia lycioides, Litscea angusfifolia, Homonoia riparia, 

 Ficus scemocarpa, Ficus lanceolata. These and other shrubs grow in masses 

 in rocky or shingly stream-beds, dry during half the year and entirely sub- 

 merged several times, often for a week or longer, during the rains. Their 

 organization must be peculiar, and merits special study. 



I have thought it right in this book to mention a number of species which 

 are only undershrubs, because I consider that their study may be useful to 

 foresters and others in India. They belong to genera comprising large or middle- 

 sized trees. After the fires of the hot season have passed through the grass- 

 lands of the Subhimalayan tract and of other parts of India, in the midst of 

 the black desolation, which is the result of these fires, we often come across a 

 large blossom coming out of the ground, looking at a distance like a beautiful rose 

 with numerous long delicate filaments. This is Careya herbacea, closely allied 

 to Careya arborea, a large tree of India and Burma. Soon after the flowers a 

 tuft of leaves appears, and during the rains the fruit ripens, looking like a 

 large green apple. Through the action of the leaves the woody rootstock 

 underground steadily increases in size and, though the fires of the following 

 season destroy all shoots above ground, the rootstock remains uninjured and 

 annually brings forth flowers, leaves and fruit. The undershrubs which 

 behave in a similar fashion are very numerous, belonging to many orders. 

 Greicia sopiYZa with edible fruit, Ochna pumila with large golden yellow 

 flowers, Erytlirina resupinata with an upright raceme of scarlet flowers may 

 be mentioned as instances.* They must not be confounded with temporary 

 undershrubs, such as are formed through the action of the annual fires, by 

 all trees that coppice readily. Seedlings of Sal, Teak, Zizyphus jujuba, 

 Terminalia and many other trees which spring up in grasslands or in the 

 forest, are cut back to the ground by the annual fires, and here also, through 

 the action of the leaves, a large woody irregularly-shaped rootstock is formed, 

 which throws up coppice shoots that are destroyed by the fires of the hot 

 season. But when the area is protected against fire these coppice shoots grow 



* The more prominent species of this class, besides those mentioned, are : Olax 

 nana, Flemingia nana, Combretnm nanum, Mussatnda incana, M. uniflora, Indigofera 

 Hamiltonii, Jasminum Smalianum, Premna nana. 



