IGl 
Part IV.] Rama Kao : TIosl Plants of Ue Sandal Tree. 
out when they were about a year old while those grown with host 
plants continued to grow vigorously, producing lateral branches.^ 
This is practically in accord with the results of Dr. Barber’s experi- 
ments on the growth of sandal seedlings.^ 
The failures of early sandal plantings and .sowings in the open 
in My, sore and Coorg, referred to in Mr. P. M. Lu,shington’s “ Notes 
on the Sandal Tree in Southern India,” were probably due io this 
cause, as also the failure of .sowings of sandal seed after ploughing 
in open glades in Mysore, and at Hassanur in the Coimbatore 
District, referred to in the same notes. These failures were attri- 
buted to want of shade, as the real effect of the root-parasitic habit 
of sandal was not so well understood then. But in the light of the 
results of subsequent investigations, there is little doubt that it was 
owing largely to the want of ho.st-plant.s to derive its nourishment 
from, that the sandal failed in those plantings and sowings. 
(n) The practical absence or, at any rate, the rarity and extreme 
delicacy of the root-hairs even on very youny rootlets of sandal 
seedlings.'^ 
Dr. Barber has found some root-hairs on rootlets and haustoria, 
but they were comparatively small in number and minute in their 
size. In my examination of the root-.system of numerous seedlings 
with a strong lens or object glass of a microscope, I could discover 
few or no root-hairs except on haustoria formed on the roots of 
Fourcroya gigantea on which the root-hairs were numerous and 
exactly like those formed on the roots of the host itself. 
(gii) The very early attachments of their roots and rootlets to those 
of other species even when the sandal seedlings are less than 
two months old. 
This fact has been observed by several writers ; I found it in botli 
natural-grown® and nursery-raised seedlings.^ 
Dr. Barber found it in his pot-grown plants.^ 
* My “ Notes on Sandal.” — Indian Forest Records, Volume II, Part III. 
“ Dr. Barber’s “ Studies in Root-parasitism. The Haustorium of Santalum 
album,” Volume I, No. 1, last sub-paragraph of paragraph 5. — Memoirs of the 
Department of Agriculture in India. 
^ Root-parasitism of the sandal tree. — Indian Forester, Volume XXIX 
page 386. ’ 
■* Dr. Barber’s “ The Study of Sandal Seedlings.” — Indian Forester, 
Volume XXX, page 547. 
B 2 
