CH. Ill 



LOCALITY 41 



ance. The upper forests are also characterised by the 

 large masses of Usnea lichen, which hang from branches 

 and twigs. 



On the drier side of the slopes up to near the top, 

 where the influences of the S.W. monsoon are felt, and 

 where the forest differs little, if at all, from those on 

 the other side of the summit, the basal forests are open 

 savannah-forests with a dense growth of grass between 

 the trees, which are chiefly Anogeissus latifolia, Ptero- 

 carpus Marsupium, Terminalia Belerica and T. 

 Chebula, Butea frondosa, Sterculia foetida, with a 

 dwarf form of Diospyros Melanoxylon and Careya 

 arborea, the last of which ranges up to near 2000 

 metres (G000 ft.). Farther up most of these species 

 disappear, with the exception of Careya arborea and 

 Terminalia Chebula, while scattered Doona zeylanica 

 takes their place, and, finally, practically nothing is 

 left but scattered Careya. But this scarcity of trees, 

 as will be seen later, is largely due to the action of man. 



Very similar gradations will be found in the 

 mountain ranges of South India and the Malay 

 Peninsula. Only the Iron-wood (Mesua ferrea) seems 

 to have a greater range of elevation ; and Teak, which 

 is not indigenous in Ceylon, is found in the basal 

 region, both on the wetter and drier sides of the Ghats, 

 and Burma. Conifers, which are also entirely absent 

 from Ceylon, range into most of the other parts of the 

 Tropics, and in the Indo-Malayan regions, as far as the 

 Philippines and New Guinea, they are represented by 

 the genera Podocarpus, Pinus, and Dacrydium, which 

 are found at various elevations, sometimes not more 

 than 600 ft. and occasionally less ; for not only in 

 Asia, as in the Andamans and Upper Burma, but 

 also in tropical Africa and New Zealand certain trees, 

 particularly Podocarpus, will be found in valleys 

 and lacustrine swamps, where the soil temperature 

 is low, thus imitating the example of Pinus 

 montana in Europe, and of Quercus incana in the 

 Sub -Himalayas. In Java, on the wet side of the 



