SOME FOREST SECRETS 



forest, yet in Mukeo the Bamboo finds its equal. So far 

 as I have been able to observe, Mukeo is the only species 

 of timber which successfully combats the oncoming in- 

 vasion of Bamboo. Sometimes, at certain altitudes, 

 Mukeo is defeated, but generally it has the advantage 

 and persists till the Bamboo is subjugated. 



In this forest I saw the most perfect Cedars it has yet 

 been my fortune to discover. Straight, clean boles, 

 towering up to eighty feet or more in height, without a 

 side branch, or a single flaw. 



Would that it were possible to discover the secret 

 of the past! We can but surmise what has happened to 

 bring about conditions favourable to such perfected 

 growth. Here there is a giant Cedar surrounded by 

 Podo, Mueri and Olive, while close by is the bole of 

 what remains of an old Musharagi, decayed and broken 

 oflf twenty feet from the ground. The question we 

 naturally ask is, what existed there before? Was some 

 old Olive tree responsible for sheltering the pigeon that 

 brought the Cedar seed from which sprang our giant 

 of today? 



That was the secret and its discovery was a source of 

 real satisfaction, for natural regeneration of Cedar in a 

 pure forest where the ground has not been either burnt 

 over, the humus removed or the sub-soil exposed in 

 some other way, simply does not exist. Strange though 

 it may seem, despite the fact that thousands of seeds 

 are lying under the mother trees, there are no seedlings. 



The Olive provides the ideal humus for the germina- 



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