66 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



its leading shoot till it reaches the branch of an adjacent one. It pro- 

 ceeds to embrace the bole at first in several loose coils and then to 

 stretch its leader out as if in search of a further exterior support, failing 

 to find which it returns to the original bole and forms three or four 

 constricting coils round it, continuing to adopt the left-to-right habit. 



Releasing its grasp again it succeeds by a series of wide curves or 

 swoops to reach the illuminated heights of the crown. Here it commences 

 to form a net-work of branches, spreading across the crown, and perhaps 

 overhanging it, until at length some of the branches are suspended in 

 graceful festoons. A tree thus invaded naturally is unable to expand and 

 eventually dies ; but the climber itself does not stop its course. Hav- 

 ing, perhaps, reached the ground, especially where the tree invaded is a 

 small one, its growth is further stimulated by its lower branches rooting 

 in the soil and forming new individuals. It also possesses the faculty 

 of reproducing itself by root-suckers, so that when once it has entered a 

 forest and if the leaf canopy has not completely formed, it spreads in all 

 directions by this means and also by means of its stoloniferous branches. 



In some instances after having reached the illuminated heights of a 

 tree it is stimulated also to throw out another arm from its base, and this 

 latter instead of attaching itself to the bole of the host and climbing up 

 it, embraces one of its own scandent shoots that have grown old with the 

 tree and been stripped of its foliage and coils tightly round it, restrict- 

 ing its circumferential growth at the parts in contact with the coils, 

 forming strands like those of a cable. Such a scandent form is 

 common in the canopied forests of the Bassein Range where the Ukshi. 

 both as a climber and a shrub, may be seen to advantage. 



In these interesting forests, which are at the base of the Tungar plateau 

 in Bassein, the Ukshi stems here reaqh a girth of 1 to 2| feet. Where 

 the latter have grown old with the trees and where the older portions 

 have been stripped of their foliage they resemble ropes loosely stretched 

 between the ground and tree summits and between tree and tree, formino- 

 swings in some places and rope-ladders, as it were, for the monkeys.* 



The branches of the Ukshi being annually lopped around villa oes 

 between January and April for tahal as already explained it is not often 

 seen in flower in such localities. The smaller twigs are utilized for 

 native tooth brushes. The most interesting characteristic: of the plant is 



* Vide Earner's " Natural History of Plants." 



