( 24 ) 



The aocompanying map of Peji^u will give an idea of the different zones in this province. 

 The map itself is a copy* from I)r. Brandis' Sketch-map of the teak localities in B. Burma, 

 with very few alterations. It would have been desirable to compile a new and more correct 

 map on a larger scale, and to enter in it the different forests, soils, S;a, but this is not practi- 

 cable at present. 



6. Distinction of the vegetation into an original and a secondary one. 



The vegetation of Pegu, as of any other country, must be distinguished into an original 

 and a secondary one, the latter being produced by the agency of man. The limits between the 

 two are arbitrary and in many cases can by no means be traced satisfactorily. It is, how- 

 ever, useful to distinguish between original Flora and cultivation, and to keep them apart, 

 for reasons easily to be comprehended. 



The mixing up of these states of vegetation may change the whole botanical physiog- 

 nomy of a country so as to make it very unintelligible or misleading. For instance any 

 one who would draw up a description of the Flora of the Gangetic Delta as it now pre- 

 sents itself, would produce a picture quite different to what really existed when cul- 

 tivation had not yet advanced so far in Bengal ; for the alluvial plains of lower Bengal 

 have been at some time exactly what the Irrawadili valley is now. My own explorations 

 have shewn me clearly, that the Gangetic plains must have been covered by the same 

 kinds of forest (consisting, however, partially of diti'ereut species), as we now find along 

 the Irrawaddi. There have been extensive savannahs and savannah-forests gradually passing 

 into lower mixed forests towards the base of the Himalayas, Behar and the Khasyah-hills, and 

 as gradually running into savannahs and tidal jungles towards the sea coast. Laterite and 

 diluvial formations are not so developed in Bengal, but where they occur along the borders 

 of the vast alluvial plain, the vegetation on them is as characteristic and peculiar as it is in 

 Pegu ; for although the plants differ to a great extent specifically, their habit and phy- 

 siological character are equivalent. 



The accompanying plate contains two sections, one of Burma from Toungoop to the Sal- 

 ween, the other of the Gangetic valley from the Rajmehal hills to the Himalayas. A 

 cursory inspection of these two sections will shew that, in spite of all the differences in the geo- 

 logical nature of the hill tracts, the relationship and distribution of the vegetation is, and 

 still more has been, in Bengal precisely the same as that of Pegu. The Fug-forests are 

 here represented by sal-forests,f while the upper mixed forests, &c., are in habit also the 

 same, although differing greatly in their specific constituents. 



This section, therefore, will serve two purposes, first to bring under view the whole 

 chain of forests from the Irrawaddi to the Sittang ; and, second, to give at the same time a 

 hypsometrical exhibition of the Burmese hills, as compared with those of the Himalayas. 



In a botanical point of view, the study of the vegetation of such large expanses of allu- 

 vium, as that of the Ganj^es and Bramapootra, is interesting in so far as it teaches us that 

 these alluvia ofier as powerful a barrier as the sea, if not one even more powerful, to the dis- 

 persion of plants. But these are considerations of little interest to the forester. 



In the second part of my report I shall introduce more botanical sections on a larger 

 scale, which will show more clearly the regularity of distribution of the forests of Pegu. 



Another division of the different vegetative combinations, if I may be allowed to call the 

 different kinds of forests, savannahs, &c., by this denomination, is into forests and low natural 

 vegetation. This is a practical division, introduced more for the sake of rendering the subject 

 easier for forest officers, than as one based upon sound scientific principles. 



The forests may be distinguished into evergreen forests and those that shed their 

 leaves during the dry season. The transition from deciduous forests to evergreen forests 

 is not unfrequent, but, generally speaking it is not so difficult to detect this, as it is to distin- 

 guish recently cultivated lands from original vegetation. 



As regards the different kinds of forest, I need hardly say that they are classified 

 only as a means for distinguishing certain associations of trees ; for so great is the 

 variety of forests in Pegu, that I might easily have doubled their number had I seen any 

 real advantage in doing so. It must not be supposed, that these forests present themselves 

 everywhere in the same proportions and under the same conditions ; on the contrary, they 

 ofier so many transitions, that I found myself several times in a dilemma, not knowing ex- 

 actly in what kind of forest I was then travelling. Scientifically such irregularities and 



It is a matter of infinite regret to ine, that tbis copy has been executed by the artists under my charge 

 so earelessW and so incorrectly. Tlieso men are only accustomed to draw plants, and have hardly any idea of maps. 

 However, I hope, the laap will be good enough to shew the zones, and to exhibit roughly also the routes I 

 took when in Burma. 



t These sal-forcsta are all along the base of the Himalayas situated on raised diluvial banks ; throughout 

 Behar and the Kajmehal hills they appear on gradually rising laterite and other impermeable strata, pertinaciously 

 avoiding alluvium and permeable strata, just as the eng-forests in Burma. 



