CHAPTER IV 



PLANT AND ANIMAL ALLIES AND ENEMIES (EXCLUDING 

 MAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS) 



In dealing with the subject of vegetable allies and 

 enemies of forest growth it is sometimes difficult, in 

 our present stage of knowledge, to discriminate as to 

 whether the vegetable forms under consideration are an 

 encouragement to the kind of forest required by the 

 owner or whether they are a hindrance. It may depend, 

 for example, on whether these plant forms have them- 

 selves, or acquire, a sufficient economic importance to 

 make their presence desirable. Take Bamboos for 

 example. It may be most undesirable to see them 

 appearing in a forest filling up gaps which can be filled 

 more advantageously by seedlings of more valuable trees. 

 Thus, in parts of Burma they invade the forests and 

 drive out Teak and other valuable species. But a 

 demand for that particular kind of bamboo may arise, 

 which will be as profitable to the owner as a mixed 

 forest of Teak, and which, maybe, gives the soil the 

 shelter which it requires. Such is the case with some 

 other gregarious plants which are classed as pests, and, 

 no doubt, are pests to those who wish to cultivate the 

 soil or who wish to get a quick regeneration in the 

 forests. Among these, one of the most important is the 

 Lantana. Lantana aculeata and L. mixta, straggling 

 shrubs, natives of tropical America and introduced into 

 other parts of the Tropics as ornamental plants, have 

 spread in the moist and wet zones, especially the 

 latter, up to above 1000 metres (3280 feet), sometimes 



