14 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODCCTIOXS. 



Hernandia peltata, Sop/iora tomentosa, Nab-h5 ( Odiiia readier), OcJirosia sahiiris, Ccrhrra 

 odallitm, Briedelia glauca, and such-likt trees. These forests are open and pretty 

 sunny, and slinibs are here plentiful and often entangled witli twiners, while creep- 

 ing grasses (chiefly Ischmmum muticum) and Ipomxas, especially Pynleh-ka-zun 

 {_Ipoiiuea pes-carpra!) cover the loose sand. 



In addition to Forests, properly so called, may be further enumerated : 



IX. ISaIIBOO JrXGLES AND Sataxnahs. 



These two varieties can hardly be reckoned amongst forests, although they 

 certainly may be claimed as forest land, and as being the undergrowth of forests. 



Tlie Bamboo Jungles are characterized by the groat uniformity of their aspect 

 and by the poorness of their undergrowth, no doubt caused by the dense and 

 injurious shade which the bamboo spreads all around. Seldom do we find more 

 than two ditfercut kinds of bamboo in the same jungle; they may therefore be 

 distinguislied by tlie kind of bamboo of which tliey consist. >So we have in Burma 

 jungles of ilyin-wa [BendrucaJdmua stricfa.i), Tyn-wa {C/pJialosfuchi/i/m pergraeiie), 

 Kya-thoung-wa [Bamlusa pol//i/iorpJni), Wa-hpyu-gale {Gigaiitocldoa albo-ciliata) or 

 Wa-ta-bwot {^Pseudostuchyiim Melferi), and others. Kya-kat-wa [Bainbusa ai'undi- 

 nacea) jungles are found often in the alluvial plains near large livers. These 

 bamboos flower all simidtaneously, after a lapse of years, and then die off. Then 

 numerous light-loving plants and slmibs and also tree seedlings spring up, and it is 

 at such periods that one cannot predict with any certainty whether the next 

 generation will be again a pure bamboo jungle, or whether the saplings of the trees 

 will not get the supremacy, keeping down the young bamboos as undergrowth. 



The Savannahs are the undcrgi-owth of the Savannah forests and as such do not 

 differ from these in any point except that they arc void, or nearly so, of trees. They 

 seem to owe their existence chiefly to inundation, at least their distribution along 

 the rivers pretty well coincides with the area of regular inundation during the rains. 

 The grasses are all coarse ones, so coarse indeed that the haulms of some become 

 as woody as those of certain bamboos {Anindinaria) and grow up from 6 to 10 feet 

 in height. By far the greater part consists of the Thokay-gyi iScccharum sponfuneum), 

 Hpoun-ga {Snrcliarum procenim), Myet-yii [Poh/toca luierocUta), Kyu-na-bjm {Aruiulo 

 Ruxburghii) and Kyu {Ant)ido Madugaacarioms). Sometimes Thet-keh-nyin (Ii/ipcrnta 

 eylindn'ca), a low grass, covers larger tracts. Towards the tidal zone I'an-yin {Aiidro- 

 poffon niuricnlua) and wild sugar cane {Saccharum spnntmieum) are the princijial 

 constituents intermixed with Eragrostis procera, Cypen, etc. 



X. Deserted Cleaeings. 



Large tracts of forest are yearly felled by the natives for the cultivation of rico. 

 As soon as the harvest of the first, second, or third year is over, these lands are- 

 deserted and form touvgi/a punzoh or briefly punzohs, i.e. deserted culture land. 

 Weak herbs of cultivation, chiefly light-loving Composita, Mahacea, etc., spring up 

 in dense masses, which soon must give way to coarse grasses and shrubs, amongst 

 which tree seedlings struggle for existence. Often (especially on the hills) coarse 

 grasses soon occupy the whole surface and form a sort of hill savannah consisting 

 usually of Ta-ma-zaing or Taniyn-sain-ben {Panicum acarifcrum), and Myet-ya 

 {Pulytoca heteroclita), rarely of Thek-keh-nyin {Impcrata cylindrica). In other 

 localities, where bamboos around such dealings flowered, bamboo-seedlings spring 

 up and choke all other vegetation except light-loving quick-growing sapling trees. 

 Local relations chiefly regulate the nature of the coming jungle, but, as a rule, 

 such deserted clearings revert into forests similar to, or identical with those that 

 pre-existed on them." 



