166 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VoL. I I 
being arrested by the thick ring of sclerotic tissue, which protects 
the internal woody cylinder. But, still, sandal may thrive well in 
hedges or clumps of that S 2 )ecies, of which a number of instances 
are found in. Bangalore and its suburbs. How in such cases the 
sandal derives its nutriment is a puzzle unless it be that its require- 
ments are supplied by the living bark and by the soft and unligni- 
tied fibro-vascular bundles of tender rootlets, of which I could find 
no proof in the haustoria examined by me under the microscope. 
To add to all these complications, there is the most difficult task of 
finding a sandal tree growing only with one of its numerous hosts 
at a time, unaided by others in its growth. We invariably find in 
nature a sandal tree s'rowiu<>- with a number of hosts all or most of 
which may contribute their share towards its growth, thus render- 
ing the determination of the exact amount of influence exerted by 
each tree or species on tlie development of sandal a difficult, if not 
an impossible, problem. Two ways suggest themselves to me as 
likely to yield a practical solution of this difficult question and these 
are (1) the aidificial cultivation of the sandal tree in the company 
of each of its hosts separately, precluding all possibility of its 
coming in contact with other species of plants throughout its growth, 
and (2) isolation of existing young sandal ])lants in nature from all 
other kinds of plants than tlie one whose influence is proposed to be 
determined, by destroying those with root and all, and keeping 
them (sandal plants) so isolated till they attain to their exploitable 
age. In both cases a number of experiments must be made in 
respect of each S 2 )ecies of host so as to arrive at final and reliable 
conrdusions. Both the ways are tedious, laborious and expensive, 
thougli the second is less so than the first, and require patient wait- 
ing for a long number of years — at least 40 in my opinion. Such 
experiments will not only help to determine the best hosts of the 
sandal, but may also throw light on the question whether and to 
what extent they exert any influence on the development of 
scent. If the data aimed at are worth having, which very few 
who know the great value of sandal would deny, all the time, 
trouble and money required for the conduct of the experiments 
would be as nothing to the results which could be achieved. When 
experiments in connection with agricultural crops require several 
decades and several thousands of pounds of money, such as those 
conducted by Sir John Gilbert and Lawes at Eothamstead, what 
