60 



INDIAN FOREST MEMOIRS. 



Susceptibil- 

 ity to Fire 

 Damage. 



Utility as 

 Fodder and 

 best Treat- 

 ment for 

 Fodder 

 Production. 



48. The robust swamp form of this species 

 is not as a rule subject to fire damage and excluding this form the plants of this grass, say 

 about January, will usually be found to consist of — 



(1) The old flowering culms which flowered in the preceding August — September, 



and which are as a rule more or less dead and dry, with the exception perhaps 

 of a few of the lower internodes. 



(2) The immature young leafy culms most of which vary in size from the just 



developing buds to culms of 1 — 2 feet in length. The latter show four or 

 five mature long internodes and are seven or eight months old. These culms 

 still bear the persistent dead leaves on their lower internodes and terminate 

 in a tuft of five green leaves inserted on still young and immature nodes, 

 which are immediately below the apical bud of the culm. 



The old flowering culms and the older of the young leafy culms which carry dry leaves 

 on their lower internodes are more or less inflammable, but the culms are usually slender 

 and the leaves very narrow so that the total quantity of inflammable material is compara- 

 tively small. 



The damage done by fire consists in the destruction of the basal internodes of the old 

 flowering culms which usually remain alive and from the nodes of which young culms might 

 be developed and in the destruction of the immature leafy culms which would in due season 

 produce flower and seed. 



In loamy soil the damage actually done is as a rule very slight for the following 

 reasons : — 



(1) The plant there shows a spreading habit of growth in consequence of which the 



culms are scattered and the intensity of heat developed at any one point is 

 slight. 



(2) The soil retains moisture well and conducts heat badly so that the subterranean 



culm-internodes, buds and young culms are well protected. 



On the other hand, the tufted xerophilous form of the plant found on sand is liable to 

 somewhat severe injury. An early fire, while the soil is still a little moist, does little 

 damage, but a fire occurring late in the hot season may penetrate into the soil and destroy 

 not only the aerial part of the plant but also the tufted subterranean culms and thus prove 

 fatal. 



Fig. 2, Plate XIV, shows a plant which was almost killed in this way by a forest fire 

 in May 1908, and other plants have been seen which were completely killed. 



49. This plant is a favourite buff aloe-fodder, 

 especially the hygrophilous form with comparatively broad leaves common near streams, 

 and in such places firing is usually impossible. In drier places at all events, occasional 

 early firing would be probably beneficial by cleaning the clumps of debris, by destroying the 



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