BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 23 



For convenience the sub-divisions of the region will be taken in 

 the following order : — 



(1) The marine littoral region. 



(2) The alluvial plains. 



(3) Lower mountain slopes. 



(4) Sub-alpine region. 



Most of these regions are capable of further subdivision ; 

 though the divisions seems simple, it is not always easy to 

 separate them. There are regions of an intermediate character 

 where it is hard to decide to what they strictly belong. Further- 

 more, though the whole country is clothed with forest, this is 

 particularly true of the mountain regions. In the alluvial plains 

 there are extensive areas of open plains with no timber except of a 

 low bushy kind. The plains are clothed with coarse grasses and 

 are composed of poor soil. Most of these plains are subject to 

 inundation, and indicate the extent of the overflow by their 

 limits. Lands liable to inundation are not always densely clothed 

 with forest, for the contrary is the case in some instances. There 

 are wide savannahs of coarse grasses without much timber in the 

 Malay Peninsula, as well as open forests with little timber and a 

 dense undergrowth of jungle. The latter term is made to mean 

 many things. Any thick entangled tract of uncultivated trees 

 and shrubs, is called jungle ; but what is distinguished by that 

 term in Java, and what is known by the same name in the Straits 

 Settlements, are two very different things, as will appear hereafter. 



Mangrove Forests. — What are called Mangroves are forests 

 growing on shallow marine mud-flats inundated by every tide, and 

 in fact living in sea-water more than out of it. Most of the 

 species germinate from the fruit while it reuiains attached to the 

 tree. The radical and club-shaped crowns of the root gradually 

 lengthen until they reach the soft muddy soil where they strike 

 root and form a close thicket down to the verge of the ocean ; a 

 thicket both above and below. Above, the branches and leaves 



