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Mr Barber, Parasitic Trees in Southern India. 
Parasitic Trees in Southern India. By C. A. Barber, M.A., 
F.L.S., Christ’s College, Cambridge. Government Botanist, 
Madras Presidency. (Communicated by Professor Seward.) 
\Read 20 May 1907.] 
1. Although it has long been known that Santalum album , 
the sandal tree of commerce, is a root-parasite, yet those in 
charge of sandal plantations in India have, until recently, been 
remarkably oblivious of the fact. 
This is not to be altogether wondered at when we look at the 
trees themselves. There is nothing in habit, foliage or size to 
suggest anything out of the ordinary. Well clothed with light 
green leaves and bearing masses of flowers and fruit, a height of 
30 to 40 feet is not infrequent with a girth of 2 to 3 feet at the 
base. Kad Handi, an intelligent observer of the tree, refers to a 
giant saudal eight feet in girth and producing 1| tons of excellent 
heartwood. Although from the commercial point of view the 
sandal matures at an age of 30 to 50 years, its total length of life 
not infrequently reaches double that period. It is quite unex- 
pected even to the trained student of plant life that such trees 
should prove to be hemi-parasites, with few or no root-hairs and 
almost entirely dependent for their water and mineral salts upon 
the roots of their neighbours. 
The natural zone of the sandal tree is fairly circumscribed, an 
irregular area in the native state of Mysore, with a few less 
important outliers in the Madras Presidency, coinciding roughly 
with the southernmost ending of the great Deccan plateau of the 
Indian Peninsula. The requirements of the sandal are given by 
authorities as an equable climate with a rainfall of about 40 inches 
and a mean temperature of 74° F. 
Sandalwood is a state monopoly in Mysore, which produces 
the great bulk of it, and the forest revenue of this state is largely 
derived from this product. Anyone convicted of injuring the trees 
is liable to severe penalties. This is exemplified by the following 
extract from the Mysore forest laws. “Any occupant or holder 
of land who fails to report at once in writing to the... (nearest 
official)... the fact of injury, arising from whatever cause, to any 
sandalwood tree or trees growing upon his land, shall be liable, 
upon conviction before a competent magistrate, to a fine which 
