( 52 ) 



M 6000 feet elevation. They are subjoot to junglefires, and when I passed these in March, 

 1868, they were just burnt down. 



They consist chiefly of a coarse bluish Arundinella and a coarse hairy AndrojMgon, along 

 with a species of Ischacmum aud a tender Balhraterum (?) as also a few other grasses and 

 Scirpeo', which were all so dried up or injured by fires as to be in a state unfit for determina- 

 tion. Of other plants I could recognise two species of QenUana, a narrow leaved Ophelia, 

 AnaphaliH adnata, Osbeckia sp., Ptei'is aquilina, Gleichenia loiigmima and dichotoma, Seiwcio 

 Griffithii f Saussttrea dcltoidea, Cyanotis barbata, Umbelli/eree, Drosera lunata, Lyccpodium claca-' 

 turn, Galium, etc. Mosses and lichens are also found frequently on the ground, especially where 

 the soil assumes more the character of a black turf ground. 



These hill-pastures are hardly more than the undergrowth of pine and hill forests, with 

 or without a few pine or other trees scattered over theni. They are always found- oa situ- 

 ations unfavourably exposed to prevailing winds. 



11. Riparian vegetation, 



A vegetation springs up on the bed or along the edges of half-dried up choungs, rivers, 

 etc., which is usually distinguished as riparian vegetation. But, as elsewhere, the physical 

 nature of the ground produces a change in the vegetation, we have to bring into consideration 

 the streams, choungs, etc., that flow over rocky or pebbly beds, and those which take their 

 course through alluvium. 



A. Vegetation of streams, etc., in alluvial lands. The bed of streams, etc., when they enter 

 the alluvium, have usually a sandy or clayey soil, and only the more rapid rivers carry down 

 pebbles which are deposited according to the laws of gravity. It is on such pebbly or shing- 

 ly beds, that we often find plants in the midst of alluvium, which we would not be able to 

 find elsewhere except by entering the hilly tracts. Pebbly deposits may also be met with 

 occasionally along the Irrawaddi, as far south as Heuzadah, but the localities I passed 

 through had no vegetation on them. Where rocks pierce through the alluvium in river- 

 beds, of course, rock-plants (which will be described in the sequel) make their appearance, 

 as for instance at Myoma, S. of Prome, where Homonoya riparia is frequently found on such rocks. 

 The fine loose sand and clay, however, along the course of such rivers, as the Irrawaddi, Sittang, 

 and other larger streams, bears a vegetation of an agrarian character. Where flying sand 

 is prevailing or forms extended sand banks (and that is often the case), a grass makes its 

 appearance before all others, and this is Saccharum spontaneum. It is a highly sand binding 

 but very troublesome grass, found everywhere over the whole of Pegu and India generally. It 

 possesses the same laud-forming qualities along river banks as the mangroves, or other 

 sand binding plants along the sea-shores, and may be compared, in this respect, with the reeds 

 of the Danube,* and other large rivers of Europe. Few plants associate with this grass, 

 and these chiefly towards the tidal zones where it is accompanied by such shrubs, as Tamarix, 

 Fluggea, Desmodium, ^c, 



It is especially along the edges of the rivers themselves, or along their escarpments, 

 from whence numerous trickling springs are running down, that the true riparian vegetation 

 is properly developed. The following are probably the most frequent riparian plants, grow- 

 ing on sandy or clayey soil : Cleome icosandra, Polycarpuni depressum, Bergia ammannioides, 

 Ludwigia prostrata, Gymnopetalum integrifolium, Mollugo glinus, and M. Spergula, Gnaphalium- 

 Ifidicum, mtilticeps, and crispatulum, Microrhynchus asplenifolius, Sphenoclea Pongafium, Helio- 

 tropiuin Indicum, Oelsia Coromandeliana, Brassica juncea, Ilysanthes parviflora, Agerafum 

 conyzoides, Ltidicigia parviflora, Jussima repens and suffruticosa, Crotalaria sericea, Polygonum 

 plebejum, Cokcasia virosa, Bonnaya verbenaefolia, Lippia nodiflora, Chenopodium album, Celo- 

 sia argentea, Vernonia cinerea, Polygonum possumbu, plebejum, orientale ? etc., Hedyotis racemosa, 

 Burmanni, and Heynei, Fimbridylis pallescens, miliacea, etc. Isolepis dipsacea, Cyperus corym- 

 bosus, Pangorei, rotundas, distans, Jrio, umbellatus, difformis, polystachyus, dilutus, coinpressus, 

 ^mlvinatus, Haspan, pilosus, pygmaeus, Lragrostis, rerticillatus, pallidus, digitatus, Courfoisia 

 cyperoides, hyllingia, Crotalaria verrucosa and striata, Cotula pinnatifida. Ranunculus sceler- 

 atus, Veronica Beccabunga with white flowers, Rumex dentatus, Bonnaya veronicaefolia, Grangea 

 Macleraspatana, Cynodon Dactylon on drier stations, Dentella repens, Portulaca oleracea, Mazus, 

 Amarantus spinosus, Sphaeranthus hirtus, Xanthium strumarium, &everal speoiea oi Blumca, 

 as B. Wightiana, lacera, etc., Eclipta alba, Spilant/ies acmella, Nasturtium, Ficus hetei'ophylla 

 especially along escarpments, Alternanthera sessilis, Thespis divaricata, Hydrocotyle Asia- 

 tica, Commelyna comtnunis, Aneilema nudiflorum, and similar ones. Amongst the above- 

 named a number of cultivated plants also settle down, such as Nicotiana Tabacum, Foeniculum, 

 Ricinus communis, Raphanus sativus, Physalis Peruviana, Datura alba, Gomphrenaglobosa, etc. 



Cryptogams are remarkably rare here, but along the escarpments of the large rivers, 

 like the Irrawaddi, a purplish species of Marchantia or Grimaldia is as common, as along the 

 Bramhapootra in E. Bengal. 



* See a paper by Beisseck, iu Flora, 1856, p. 622. 



