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AA. Evergreen Forests.* 



The evergreen forests comprise all forests, the trees of which do not shed their leaves 

 during the hottest and driest part of the year, or from February to the beginning of the rains 

 in May. I do not, however, mean that all the trees represented in such forests, are evergreens : 

 the evergreen trees are only the prevailing types in them. But although a mathematical 

 line cannot be drawn between evergreen and deciduous forests, the demarcation between thera 

 is nearly as conspicuous as that of the Eng forests and mixed forests. Not rarely these 

 evergreens are seen in valleys intruding their dense dark-green heads into the drier mixed 

 forests above them. 



1. Littoral forests. 



The littoral forests stretch all along the coasts, wherever flat shores and alluvial deposits 

 prevail. They extend as far into the interior (especially in the so-called deltas of larger rivers) 

 as the tidal wave penetrates. In Pegu itself the tidal zone in a line drawn from Khayazoo to 

 Bassein will probably indicate the general limit of the littoral forests. They do not, however, 

 cover the whole extent of the country (as is the case in the Soonderbuns of lower Bengal) south of 

 this line, but are restricted to the alluvial formations, and more especially to the immediate vici- 

 nity of the rivers and tidal channels. They are often enough interrupted by other kinds of 

 forests, which either grow on the higher grounds or on diluvial formations. Neither are 

 they uniformily composed of the same trees, but vary as much in their constituents as do all 

 other forests in Burma. For this reason I found it useful to divide them into the two 

 following varieties, viz. : 



a. Mangrove jungles and swamps, covered regularly by all tides. 



b. Tidal jungles, usually covered only during spring and higher tides. 



a. Mangrove jungles. These forests, in the sense I take them, occupy the flat muddy 

 shores along the sea, and especially along the estuaries of rivers and streams, forming the outer 

 skirt of vegetation, and often extending (during flood tide) far into the sea. They are regularly 

 submerged by the tides, and are very poor in species, when compared with other forests. They 

 form rather dense and usually low jungles of 40 to 70 feet in height with glossy dark-green 

 foliage. The most characteristic trees and shrubs found here are those which are generally 

 known under the name of mangroves, such as Bntguiera gymnorhiza, and sometimes B. oxy- 

 phylla, R/iiz<yphora conjugata and Rh. mucronata (aU. these called by the Burmans pyoo), 

 further Ceriops Roxburghiana, Kandelia Rheedei, Somieratia apetala, S. acida and S. Griffithii, 

 Lnmnitzcra racemosa, C'irapa obovata, Scyphiphora caryophyllacea, Brownlowia lanceolat-a, Aegi- 

 c^ras corniculata, Acanthim i/ieifolius. Amongst the poor shrubbery Acanthus volubilis, a 

 Hoy a, Acroatichum aureum, and a few others are found. 



Where Bruguiera and Rhizophora prevail, the soil is washed out from the roots by the sea 

 in all directions, so as to form often a complete labyrinth of network, presenting an ugly and 

 dirty aspect. Numerous irregular short stems of undeveloped trees, looking like pinnacles, or 

 irregular knobs arising from the exposed roots, accompanied by numerous mangroves in all 

 stages of growth from the stick-like seedling up to the full-grown tree, make walking amongst 

 them very troublesome. The grey mud, which is so soft that one sinks continually up 

 to or above the ankles, bears hardly any other plants, except seedlings of such families as are of 

 a mangrove character. The ground, burrowed by various sea-animals, such as crabs, &c., is sub- 

 merged during flood tide, when the lower trees and shrubs show only their crowns above the sea, 

 while the higher mangrove trees, sticking out from the expanse of water, appear like a floating 

 forest. These are usually the trees of which we first catch sight when approaching the 

 shores of a low country. 



b. Tidal jungles. The tidal jungles resemble in many respects the mangrove jungles, 

 especially along the very borders of the tidal channels, but they are usually devoid or nearly 

 so of true mangroves, such as Bruguiera, Rhizophora, SfC. They not only occupy the sea- 

 shore, but far up country, especially along the various river systems. They are even 

 found, where the influence of tide is very inconsiderable, and the water only very slightly 

 brackish. Their average height is from 40 to 60 feet, or even in some cases higher, and some- 

 times they are reduced to shrubs. They have plenty of shrubby undergrowth. During spring 

 tides they are more or less inundated, but ordinary tides seldom reach them. The most 



Compare also 



1. Dr. Brandis' report on the Attaran forests for the year 1860. (Selections from the Records of the 

 Government of India, No. XXXII. 186 1 ), and 



2. Dr. Brandis' Auszugeines Briefesdes Dr. D. Bi-andis. Domdamee Forests, 23rd March, 1862. (Botanisohe 

 Zeitung, 1863, p. 43). 



3. H. Falconer. Report on the Teak Forests of Tenasserim. (Selections from the Records of the Bengal 

 Government, No. IX. 1852). 



4. Dr. McClelland. Report on the Teak Forests of Pegu. (Selections from the Records of the Government 

 of India, No. IX. 1855). 



