MIXED CHOP OF UNIFOEM AGE. 65 



only a relatively small proportion of it to survive and become 

 mature fruit. Similarly, the flowers and fruit of some species are 

 more liable to be attacked by insects and fungi than those of 

 others. 



Generally speaking, the relative fruitfulness of the various species 

 will be directly proportionate to the smallness of their seeds, while 

 as regards species producing more or less the same size of seed, 

 those will generally bear more plentifully which are of more vigor- 

 ous growth, Hence in any given soil or locality, the relative pro- 

 fuseness with which the several species composing a crop will seed, 

 will depend on the relative suitability of the soil or locality for 

 them. Similarly, in any crop those species will, cceteris parilnts, 

 fructify most abundantly, which are nearest to the heart of their 

 habitat. 



(b) Its relative frequency. While with some species, as sal, 

 sissu, khair, Anogeissus latifolia, A. pendula, Terminalia to- 

 mentosa, &c. generally, and teak and Pinus longifolia within the 

 main range of their habitat, seed-bearing trees in numbers are 

 seldom, if ever, wanting in any year, with others, on the con- 

 trary, like the Hardwickia binata, most bamboos, &c., not a single 

 tree will be found even in flower for several years together. Between 

 these two extremes stand the greater number of our arborescent 

 species. Greater frequency of seeding is obviously a marked ad- 

 vantage in the struggle for existence. Nevertheless, as we have 

 already seen in the case of bamboos and Hardwickia binata, great 

 profuseness can more than make up for long intermjttence, even 

 where the other associated species seed abundantly every year. It 

 is when the species concerned is also shade-enduring and able to 

 push up through cover, that frequent seeding alone, without com- 

 bined abundance, can give it an easy predominance ; but when a- 

 bundance and frequency of seeding are combined in one and the 

 same species, as in the case of our herbaceous grasses, the species 

 so favoured enjoy an enormous advantage. 



The annual or intermittent seeding of the various forest species 

 is in nearly every case due to their nature. For instance, the 

 bamboos will under no circumstances throw up flowering shoots 

 every year in a general manner. But lower temperatures than those 

 prevailing in the heart of the habitat of a species may prevent it 

 from flowering annually. Nay, even with trees which produce in- 

 florescence buds annually, the ravages of frost, drought, fire, in- 

 sects, &c., will sometimes cause seed to fail. Such failure must be 

 traced to the interval between the appearance of the buds and 



