758 XLVI. VERBENACEAE 



considerable areas of forest, and after flowering the bamboos die ; the dead 

 culms then fall by degrees and, in burnt forests, become consumed by fire. 

 The admission of light and heat caused by this opening of the bamboo cover 

 stimulates the natural reproduction of teak provided fire is admitted. The 

 influence of bamboo flowering on teak reproduction has at times been called 

 in question, but it is now known from various recorded observations to be a fact 

 that it has a very decided influence. I have myself observed its undoubted 

 effects in the Pyinmana forests, following on a general flowering of Cephalo- 

 stachyum pergracile. Mr. J. W. Ohver ^ has recorded the following statement : 

 ' Where there are a sufficient number of parent seed trees an intense fire 

 following the flowering and dying of bamboos generally gives rise to extensive 

 reproduction of teak, without the aid of artificial sowings. Instances of this 

 may be studied in the Setkala reserve in the Bhamo division and in some 

 of the reserves on the right bank of the Shweli river in the Ruby Mines division ; 

 the Nanme reserve is, I think, the particular locality I have in mind.' In the 

 same connexion the following passage may be quoted from the Report on 

 Forest Administration for the northern circle. Upper Burma, 1907-8 : ' Ob-' 

 servations made during the year show that the flowering of the bamboo, 

 tinwa (Cephalostachyum pergracile), which has been advancing in a wave 

 southwards over Upper Burma during the last four or five years, has had 

 markedly beneficial results on teak reproduction.' In the following year the 

 Report says : ' Observations of the year confirm the view expressed in the last 

 Annual Report that the reproduction of teak in areas in which bamboos have 

 flowered and the debris been burnt, or allowed to burn, leaves little to be 

 desired. On the other hand, where bamboos have flowered and the area has 

 not been allowed to burn for fear of damage to contractors' logs and naturally 

 dead and windfall timber, a tangled mass of vegetation consisting of creepers 

 and weeds and old bamboo stems encumbers the ground, and not only prevents 

 any fresh germination, but also hopelessly smothers any seedlings which might 

 previously have existed.' 



It is evident that in the types of forest met with in Burma the admission 

 of fire is necessary in bamboo-flowered areas where natural reproduction of 

 teak is desired. For how long, if at all, burning is necessary after the year of 

 seeding of the bamboo will depend on local conditions and on the extent 

 to which weeding and cleaning can be carried out. Young bamboo growth is 

 far less adverse to the establishment of teak reproduction than certain other I 



weeds for instance, Eupatorium odoratum, Alpinia, Strobilanthes, gingers, &c. 

 but if it is fire-protected, young bamboos form very dense masses, which if 

 cleaning cannot be carried out may do much harm by suppression. ij 



Mr. C. B. Smales ^ notes that in areas in the Thayetmyo and Prome 

 districts, where Dendrocalamus strictus and Ba7nbusa Tulda had recently 

 flowered and where fire -protection had been abandoned, the bamboos estab- 

 lished themselves in dense masses even where late burning had been carried 

 out in order to destroy the seed. Here teak seedlings contemporaneous with 

 young bamboo were not found surviving except on the edges of the flowered 

 areas where the fire had not been so intense. The only successful teak saplings 



' Ind. Forester, xxxiii (1907), p. 242. 



- Xotes on a Tour in Forests on the West Slopes of the Pegu Yoma, 1917. 



