( 50 ) 



T A. A. 'Land-Vegetatiok. 



The land-vcgotation comprises 



1. The banilioo jungles. 



2. The savannahs. 



3. The natural pastures, and finally, 



4. The riparian vegetation. 



8. Bamboo jungles. 



The bamboo jungles are such an ambiguous formation, that I should have really omit- 

 ed them entirely were it not, that in some localities these jungles become so pure and extend- 

 ed, that they cannot be brought into direct connection with the surrounding forests. I do 

 not consider bamboo jungles to be forests, however high may be their growth ; they are ac- 

 tually nothing more than the undergrowth of forests, and stand in the same relation to them 

 as the savannahs, for instance, do to the savannah forests. Their chief character lies in their 

 great uniformity, and in the poorness of their undergrowth. Seldom do we find more than 

 two diSerent kinds, and often, only a single kind of bamboo in these jungles, and, therefore, the 

 difierent varieties of the bamboo jungles might justly be called after the prevailing de- 

 scription of bamboo that is found in them. Such bamboos, as are locally found to form 

 jungles for themselves, without an admixture of higher trees, are myinwa, iinwa, Ki/it- 

 tounwa and rvnpyoo gelny, all these growing on rocky strata or on shallower alluvium, while 

 Bamhusa spinosa (Yakatwa) is restricted to the plains in deep alluvium near larger rivers. 



All the bamboo stocks usually flower together at the same time, and this is the case 

 also with those growing as undergrowth in the forests ; they then die off one by one after 

 maturing their seeds. It is believed that they do so regularly after a certain number of 

 years, which is variously set down at from 40 to 60 years. For the larger kinds this may 

 be a fair estimate ; but I know of a bamboo in Java, 25 feet high, which flowers and dies off 

 every three years, and of others which flower regularly at the ends of the branches for many 

 years (especially Schizostachya), until they finally become a whole gigantic panicule of flowers 

 ere the close of their lives. 



Shrubs or other kinds of woody plants are so few as hardly to need mention, and only 

 where the jungles become more open, or along their borders do shrubs appear in modest 

 numbers ; all these are of an ubiquitous nature. In the same way herbaceous plants are 

 scarce in the interior, but become more conspicuous in open situations, where we meet with 

 plants like (?yj[;er!, /mcrt Zacer, and several other species, Flemmingia /iHCrt^a, and another 

 species, Ritngia repens, Lceae, etc. 



During the time of flowering, when the leaves are shed either partially or entirely, 

 numerous light-loving plants spring up, which, no doubt, have come over from the sur- 

 rounding mixed forests ; and in low situations, various grasses of the savannah character 

 spread rapidly, accompanied by shrubs and other plants of a similar character. 



Where the bamboo grows very thickly, and the species is one which may be reckoned 

 amongst evergreens (at least under certain conditions, like Kyattounwa) cryptogams settle iu 

 numbers, and we find here many a peculiar description of moss and lichen. A Hypnum is 

 then not unfrequent, inhabiting chiefly the lower nodes of the culms, while some very re- 

 markable lichens form white or greenish thalli on the stems further up, fructifying, however, 

 only rarely. On the ground, too, several mosses, as Hypnum and Fissidens become sometimes 

 conspicuous, forming lovely green dense patches. 



9. Savannahs. 



These savannahs, or, as they are often called by Europeans inPegu, elephant grass jungles 

 cover the plains in deep alluvium, where the arboreous growth has been either quite sup- 

 pressed by the powerful coarse grasses that compose them, or the trees are so scattered, 

 that only one or the other can be seen at great distances from each other ; they do not there- 

 fore form true forests. Along the Irrawaddi, especially towards its delta, they are often 

 very extended, and in the lower parts between the Pegu and Sittang rivers, at about the 

 latitude of the town of Pegu, they assume such dimensions that they may fairly be compared 

 with those occurring in America. It is not necessary at all to specify the plants that grow 

 here, for they are the very same as those forming the undergrowth of the savannah forests, 

 viz. the different kinds of elephant grass, along with those shrubs and herbs mentioned 

 already under 6 a. lb. (page 44). 



Little creeks often intersect these jungles, and along such we often find vividly green 

 patches of Carcx Wallichiana, further Helminthostachys, Ceratopferis, Adiantum lunulatum, 

 Asplenium esculentum, Pohjpodixni proliferum and sometimes Nephrodittm molle. 



Towards the tidal zone these savannahs become more extended passing into tidal savan- 

 nahs, in which Arrhenatherum muricaiiim, Eragrosti-s procera, Cyperus tegetus, and such like tidal 

 grasses become conspicuous. Also Tamarix, Pluchen, Qlochidion, and other tidal shrubs 

 along with trees, such as Paritium tiliaeeum, Erythrina ovalifolia, Butea frondosa, Bombax, 



