08 OEEOARIOUSNESS AND SOCIABILITY OP SPECIES. 



(0 Jts remarkable tendency to produce extremely abundant 

 suckers, and the extraordinary vitality of its roots in this respect, 

 completely severed portions being able to strike at once and throw 

 up strong shoots. 



(/) Its very rapid growth as soon as it has established itself. 



(X;) Its great powers of recovery from the effects of injuries. 



(/) Its ability to form a complete leaf-canopy by itself during 

 its youth, and even up to the close of the sapling stage. 



(m) Its complete immunity from lopping and browsing, as its 

 leaves are used neither for fodder nor as manure. 



(>i) The persistence of its foliage almost throughout the year. 



Pln-us longifolid. 



The Finns lonrpfolia is a hill tree and flourishes in the poorest 

 and driest soils, being able to attain its finest dimensions even 

 on loosely-cemented shingly formations several hundred feet thick. 

 Individuals of it ara found as low down as 1,500 feet, and fairly 

 large patches of it are to be met with in the moist outer Hima- 

 layan belt, but it forms really large gregarious forests only in the 

 intermediate and dry inner belts at elevations ranging from 3,000 

 to 5,500 feet. The reasons for this gregariousness may, in a gene- 

 ral manner, be briefly stated thus : 



(a) The extreme dryness and poverty of the soil and sub-soil 

 which this pine delights in and which most other trees avoid, and 

 the immense continuous stretches of such soil to be met with at 

 the altitudes which suit the tree. This is the chief determining 

 cause of its gregariousness. 



(1>) Its almost complete immunity from damage from the 

 mout i of cattle, and from lopping for fodder, that great cause of 

 fodder-yielding trees in the Himalayas (most of its larger broad- 

 heaved issociates are such) being either killed out or at least kept 

 down i i the bt ite of low bushes. 



(c) The very marked superior hardihood of the young seedling. 



((?) Profuse general seeding at short intervals, with fairly 

 al tinda'it seeding in intermediate years. 



(e) The comparatively small size of the pine seed, which en- 

 ables it to be caught in small crevices or hollows in the hillsides, 

 contrary to what happens with acorns, which roll or are washed 

 down in numbers to the bottoms of the valleys and ravines, and 

 which are the seeds ot the only companions of the pine that are 

 able to compete with it in stature. 



