167 
Part iV.J Rama Rao : Host Plants of the Sandal 'tree. 
wonder that experiments on forest crops which take several genera- 
tions to mature should demand great patience and ample funds ! 
8 From the foregoing remarks it will be readily understood that 
such information as a Forest Officer can collect on the subject from 
his OAvn observations in the field, in addition to his other executive 
duties, can neither be thorough and complete nor quite accurate 
and conclusive. From the nature of the subject itself, the limited 
area of the natural sandal tracts which came under my observation, 
the restricted opportunities for study of the sandal and its hosts 
owino" to the inaccessible situation of the localities Avhere it occurs 
O 
in the Salem and Kurnool Districts, far away from the main centres 
of heavy forest works where most of my time was spent, the follow- 
ing notes collected under the above disabilities cannot but be im- 
])erfect, incouclusiA’e and perhaps inaccurate in some instances. 
In venturing to publish them in this defective and imperfect state, 
my sole object is to appeal by this means to Forest Officers and others 
who have had and still have opportunities of stud 3 dng the subject, 
to publish the results of their studies and observations so that in 
the course of a few years sufficient materials may be collected for 
compiling a correct life-history of the sandal tree and of the 
relath’-e influence of its various hosts on its grow th and development. 
The Mysore State being the home of the sandal tree, which yields 
an average annual outturn of 2, ()()() tons of cleaned wood A’alued at 
Rs. 1 2.00,000, 1 would specially ajipeal to the My^sore Forest Officers 
to publish their observations already recorded if any, to carry'^ out 
further observation and study, and to publish results periodically. 
To those officers who cannot command the requisite time and 
patience to examine the root-systems of the various hosts of sandal 
in its neighbourhood, I would suggest the much easier and quicker 
mode of collecting information by going along the beds of rivers, 
streams and nallahs on whose banks sandal trees occur and noting 
carefully the occurrence of sandal haustoria or their scars or both 
on the roots of the host-plants, exposed to view on the slopes of the 
banks. Where doubts arise as to whether an affected root is of a 
given species existing there or whether the haustoria are those of 
sandal or of any other root-parasite, such as those of the Olacacpce, 
it would be an easy matter to trace either of them to its source by 
a little digging. By this mode I have collected a good deal of 
information in the course of a single morning’s ramble which would 
