BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 153 



■ 



The trees chiefly seen in the padangs are Vitex tomentosa, Emblica 

 officinalis, and some two or three others, whose bark, being very full 

 of sap, resists the fire for a moment or two. That is enough, for the 

 tempest of flame, fed only by grass, is gone in an instant ; and when a 

 tree has, by one accident or another, survived three or four years, it is 

 safe from such immediate destruction.. These padang trees however, 

 after all, are destined to perish by fire. A bit of bark is killed or 

 knocked off : perhaps a dead stick has rested against it, and given the 

 fire time to kill the bark ; or a buffalo rubs his horn, or a pig whets 

 his tusk there. Then the verdict has gone forth \ next year the bit of 

 bare dead surface burns long enough to kill further the edges of the 

 wound, which is next year, and every year, more and more extended, 

 till the tree stands up, as upon a stick, which gives way to the first 

 storm , generally however alive to the last moment. Wherever a group 

 of trees, other than of these few species, is seen on the padangs, it is a 



carry 







The 



changes in the appearance of these vast grassy plains within a few days 

 is indeed singular. After the long dry weather they are a light green- 

 ish-yellow ; the fire passes, and leaves them black ; in three days more 

 they are the lightest and freshest of green again ; and in ten days after 



fallen 



the waving plumes of flowers, which never appear except after fire, 

 though it be delayed several years. Of course these fires destroy all 

 that is aboveground of thousands of sapling trees, but the roots remain- 

 ing alive throw up fresh shoots ; these in their turn are burnt off year 

 after year, and again, year after year, fresh shoots are thrown out from 

 the edge of the stool, which becomes at last a thin distorted disc of 

 wood, fixed to the ground by innumerable perpendicular fibres, and 

 burnt perfectly smooth on the upper surface. These bare stools, some- 

 times eighteen inches in diameter, have a strange appearance imme- 

 diately after the fire, but are soon again bidden by the grass. 



When next I write to you I hope it will be to announce to you that 

 the specimens are shipped. I enclose in this letter some seeds of the 

 new Barclava ; I have coated them with gum-arabic, and perhaps they 

 may vegetate. I hear that some seeds have lately been sent home so 

 very successfully. 



VOL. IX. 



X 



