310 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



cate branches die. The hard resistent parts remain alive, and con- 

 tinue to put out a few new leaves and bloom profusely throughout 

 this season. The herbaceous vegetation is characterized by well 

 developed perennating organs. Prostrate and rosette forms abound. 

 Much of the soil surface is exposed, and a pall of impalpable grey dust 

 settles over everything. Both in aspect and structure the vegetation 

 is distinctly xerophytic. 



The vegetation of the cold season is more representative than at 

 any other time of the year. Besides the many plants peculiar to this 

 season, some of the more hardy of the rainy season annuals persist, 

 and the vegetation exhibits a freshness and vigor that is lacking in 

 the hot season. The outstanding features of succession are also 

 more obvious at this time. 



The influence of man on the vegetation. It is impossible to 

 determine what was the condition of the vegetation in the Upper 

 Gangetic Plain before the interference of man. Doubtless many 

 plants have been directly exterminated, and others have been killed 

 by removal of some sort of protecting forest cover ; others have been 

 eliminated in competition with plants introduced along with man, 

 and by the changed conditions resulting from his various activities. 

 But man has been present long enough, and has maintained his 

 conditions of living sufficiently unchanged that the vegetation has 

 become balanced against him. With the awakening in agriculture, 

 the human factors are beginning to change, and in consequence 

 we may expect more or less profound changes to take place in the 

 vegetation again. The effect of the human factors is to interfere with 

 the natural development of the vegetation, and to throw it back to a 

 more primitive stage. If the human factors about Allahabad where 

 to become much more intense, there would result the extinction 

 of many valuable native plants, and a further regression in the 

 vegetation ; if the human factors where to relax in intensity, the 

 vegetation would at once pass on to a more advanced stage ; if man 

 were removed entirely the vegetation would ultimately reach a 

 climatic climax, though different in detail from the one present when 

 man first arrived on the scene in significant numbers. This balance 

 between the progressive tendencies of the vegetation and the 

 retrogressive influence of man is one of the most striking features of 

 the local vegetation. 



Not only has man caused the vegetation to retrogress from the 

 original climax, and is now in a state of balance with it, but he 

 interferes with normal succession in edaphic areas so profoundly that 

 it may actually be prevented. Pools, for example, that should show 

 early stages in succession, serve as bathing places for man and beast. 



