( 58 ) 



of Buch toungyas. Light-loving species are always such as appear first, while the feeble* 

 evergpreen trees, as a rule, grow up only after tliose lofty leaf-shedding trees of the 

 evergreen forests (which I have already enumerated when treating of these forests) have 

 attained a height suflBcient for their shelter. At elevations, however, above 3000 feet, this 

 rule fulls to tlie ground, inasmuch as here no more leaf-shedding forests establish them- 

 selves on account of the increased moisture of the atmosphere. Therefore we may safely 

 assume, that poonzohs, as a rule, revert into forests, either identical with, or very similar to, 

 those forests that existed on them before cultivation commenced. 



I have above alluded to bamboos, and stated that bamboos appear on deserted toungyas 

 only when the surrounding bamboos in the forests are fruiting. Another reason why bam- 

 boos do not overgrow such deserted toungyas in the first year that they are left to them- 

 selves, may be, that the Karens avoid as much as possible planting rice in localities, where 

 bamboos are expected to come into flower. The true reason for this practice is, I think, 

 because wandering rats increase in jungles containing fruiting bamboos to such an extent, 

 that it is known that whole toungyas have had to be given up to these voracious creatures. 

 When the new leaf-shedding forests have grown up sufficiently, young bamboos are regularly 

 seen, as soon as the coarse grasses have disappeared. I do not think, however, that the 

 seeds of such bamboos were buried and slumbering all the time, but should rather suppose 

 that in the meanwhile bamboos in the neighbourhood had come into fruit. t 



b. Lotcer agrarvin laiuk.-By the term lower agrarian lands I understand all such 

 fields, no matter whether growing rice, tobacco, maize, sun, or others, that are formed on alluvial 

 lands. Many of them are during the rains more or less inundated, especially the rice fields. 

 The crops that are chiefly raised on them are the common water rice (Oryza satica), Phaseolm 

 mungos (bhae nan) ; Crotalaria juncea (paik hsan), Cicer arietinum (Kulapai) ; Enphanus satitvs 

 (mungla) ; along with all those plants already mentioned as growing in the upper agrarian 

 lands, hill rice and mulberry excepted. 



In the Prome district, and rarely also in the Irrawaddi zone, we find also fields of Melilotm 

 leucaHfhus, Cart/iamus tinctoriits (hsoo) and Indigo/era tiitctoria (mai nai). 



Besides these we meet frequently on fields : Apiiim graveoieus (m-mwot) ; Pachyrrhizm 

 angtdatus ; CijamopsiH psoralioides (pai-pa-soon) ; Bra-isica oleracea ; Colocasia eaciilenta ; 

 Coriandrum sativum, Lublab vulgaris, Batatas cdulis ; Amarantus oleraceus ; Allium pmnim 

 and other species ; L(-pidiuni sativum ; 2 varieties of sugarcane, sometimes Puum sativum 

 (pai) ; Physalis Peruviana (pung) ; Canavalia gladiata (pai-nouug-nee) ; Psophocarpus tetra- 

 gonolobus (pae zom gyah), and possibly some more. 



On inundated fields we see cliiefly the following plants amongst the crops : Puirena 

 ciliarii, Fimbristylis miliacea, Scirpus juncoides, Cypervs distans, Iria, umbellatus, dijfbnnis, 

 dilufus, compressus, puhinatus, Haspan, pygmceus, Eragrostis verticillalus, cephalotes, etc., Cour- 

 toisia Kyllingioides ; Lcersia hexandra, Isokpis 2-3 species ; Eriocaulon ; Xyris ; Ludtcigia 

 parvijlora ; Sphenoclea Pongatium, Popatriumjunccum, Commelyna communis, Pontederia etc. 

 etc. Submerged in the water itself a Nitella along with some Utricularm are not unfrequent. 



After harvest these fallow fields become (at least in lower situations) usually peopled 

 by numerous plants, that supersede more and more the annualsj of the rainy season, form- 

 ing a kind of soft pasture until the hot season fairly sets in, when they turn as dry 

 and barren as those which are situated higher up. Grasses and sedges are then here, as 

 e"\'erywhere, the predominant plants, but are however, like all other plants here, short- 

 lived, such as for instance the soft tender Isachne often covering some fields almost exclu- 

 sively, Diplncrum cariciifum, Fuirena ciliaris, Fimbristylis pallescens, miliacea, diphylla and 

 ovalis ; Kyllingia, Abildgaardia tnoiwstac/iya, Cyperus rotundas, and other species, Flythrop/to- 

 rus articulatus, Dactylodenium Aegyptiacum, Eleusine Indica, Arundinella arcnacea and agros- 

 toides, Chaefocyperus setaceus, Scirpus juncoides, Jsolepis and Eleochans, Panicum colanum, 

 Courtoisia cyperoides, Andropogon pertuhus, Erngrostis, l-schaemum ragosum, Paspalum scmbi- 

 eulatum, Panicum snnguinale and ciliare, Setaria glauca and such like. To these associate 

 themselves Vandellia Crustacea, Scoparia dulcis, l>ysopliyUa auricularia and verticillala, Digera 

 arvensis, Dentella rej>ns, Eriocaulon Wightianum and other species, Emilia sonc/ii/olia, Adenos- 

 ma biplicata, Hemiadelphis polysperma, Utricukria Griffithii aad 2 other species, Stylidiun 

 Kunthii, Drosera Indica, 3 species of Xyris, Lobelia trigona, several species of Linmophila, 



* I call i\ie\afeelle evergreens, but under the shade of other trees, thej* become /XMcer/u/, inasmuch as they 

 attain altogether the supremacy, sparing only tliose leaf-shedding trees, which are able to grow up loftj enough to 

 escape the injurious effects of the deprivation of light which they cause. 



t It is really astounding, that after all the various depredations, to which bamboo seeds may be exposed, 

 the ground is still so densely covered by seedlings, as to appear more like a meadow. The struggle for supre- 

 macy must be fierce, for full-grown bamboo clumps grow at several feet distance irom each other, so that at 

 least a hundred seedlings had to be extirpated to give place to a single clump. 



J Many of them are better called 4 to 5 monthly plants, for that is the period they require to complete 

 theircj'cle of life. On very sterile ground, as for instance on brick or stone paths, sands, etc., many of the plants 

 like Ageratum, Bonnai/a, etc., remain pygmean, often reduced to 2 or 3 little leaves only and a single flower. 

 In such cases 1 or 2 months are the period in which they flower, fruit and die. 



