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are closely set they form impenetrable thickets. Where Bambusa blu- 
meana is planted, the colonies occur in rows along the edges of overgrown 
clearings. tt 
Effect of artificial disturbances on the formation.—There. is both 
historical and vegetational evidence that much of the area under con- 
sideration has been cultivated. Clearings called “caingins” by the 
natives aré merely openings made in the forests by cutting and burning 
the vegetation. There are all degrees of this destruction, and after the 
existing vegetation is wholly or partially destroyed, the clearing thus 
made may perfunctorily be cultivated and then abandoned, or it may be 
more thoroughly tilled and after a number of years deserted. In any 
event, whatever the state of the removal of the original vegetation, the 
natural equilibrium has been disturbed by this means and a new but 
temporary habitat has been created which allows of the invasion of a 
type of vegetation which differs from that which has preceded it. Hither 
these clearings may grow up to form grass lands, in which event they 
may become known as “cogonales,” or they may be occupied by arboreal 
species. The nature of the vegetation which first gains an entrance 
depends on the extent to which the clearing is cultivated, on the nature 
of the surrounding vegetation, on the kind of habitat, or on disturbances 
after the clearing has been abandoned. It should be emphasized that 
the term caingin is applied to the place which is cleared for cultivation. 
It may remain this name as long as its origin is recognized, no matter 
what sort of vegetation may invade after it has been abandoned. 
Vidal ** first called attention to a peculiar type of tropical vegetation, 
prevalent near Manila, and called by the natives “parang.” (Pls. IIL 
and IV.) His description of the origin of parangs is as follows: 
Abuse in the utilization, which until a very recent time was not subject to 
any restriction whatsoever, has reduced to shoots the masses of forest which 
formerly covered the lowlands, eradicating almost all good timber trees. In fact, 
the aspect of these tracts covered with shoots and saplings differs from the one 
to be observed in analogous localities of the temperate zones. Being so covered 
with woody vegetation and young trees, to an unpracticed observer they would 
appear to be regular woods. Such places are called in Tagalog “parang,” 
a name which should find acceptance in the technical phraseology of the Philip- 
pines in the same way as has the word “jungle,” which has been admitted by 
the foresters of British India, because new things must have new names. The 
“parang” might be defined as an extensive area, covered with brushwood and the 
trees of the invading species, which have taken the place of those existing before 
the cutting or burning. The study of these places has a practical importance 
in the great question of the throwing open of public territory for settlement, 
because usually they are the most salable of the unoccupied Government lands. 
When one species becomes dominant in such places the term may be 
modified by the native name of the principal tree. Thus, on some old 
* Vidal, D. Sebastian, Catdlogo Metddico de las Plantas Lenosas Silvestres y 
Oultivadas observadas en la Provincia de Manila (1880) 9-10. 
