100 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



reference to the amount of light "which they require. The Scotch 

 fir, for instance, demands a great deal of light; its seedlings will 

 not readily spring up and thrive under the shade of its own kind or 

 of other trees. The beech, spruce, and silver fir, on the other 

 hand, can stand a great deal of shade; their seedlings will maintain 

 themselves a long time in the deep shade of the forest, growing very 

 slowly, making very little progress ; hut when a clearing is made 

 accidentally or intentionally, they will shoot up with great vigour. 

 AVhere woodlands are managed on a large scale, the peculiarities of 

 each kind of tree are carefully studied, and the treatment of the 

 different classes of forest is adapted to them. In India, teak 

 demands a great deal of light. On the other hand, most of the 

 trees which compose the tropical evergreen forest will stand a great 

 amount of shade; and thus it happens that the underwood of these 

 dense forests does not only consist of shrubs and climbers, but to a 

 great extent of seedlings of the very trees which form the dense 

 shady roof overhead. When one of these old giants falls, the mass 

 of seedlings takes a start, and as they all strive upward to the light 

 they draw each other up to a great height, the weaker plants perish- 

 ing in the fierce struggle for existence. The trees in these forests 

 cannot, however, either in height or growth, be compared to the 

 Wellingtonia of California or to the Eucalyptus of Australia. The 

 tallest tree which I have seen and measured in India was 250 feet 

 high and 38 feet in girth. This was a species of upas tree {Antiaris), 

 in the Thoungyeen forests of British Burma. Such dimensions, how- 

 ever, are never found in the deciduous forests. The tallest teak 

 tree measured by me was 102 feet to the first branch, with, perhaps, 

 an additional 50 feet of crown above. Teak trees with clear stems, 

 60 to 80 feet to the first branch, are not rare in the moist regions of 

 India. I have found them in Burma, in the Dang forests, north of 

 Bombay, and in those glorious but hot forests of North Canara, 

 which are probably the most extensive and richest teak forests 

 remaining in British India. Teak of such size and length is only 

 found in very favourable localities, where the young trees had 

 grown up close together on rich dry soil, in dells or sheltered valleys, 

 generally in company with tall bamboos, and where they were thus 

 compelled to draw each other up to that height. 



Luxuriant vegetation, under the influence of an abundant supply 

 of moisture, has its drawbacks, however, as well as its advantages. 

 Thick masses of tall grass and weeds spring up in the teak planta- 

 tions of Burma, smother the young trees, and greatly increase the 



