GEEOABTOU8NESS AND SOCIABILITY OP SPECIES. 105 



abandonment of the fields in question, gave to the crop more or less 

 the character of one consisting of trees of one and the same age and 

 thus favoured the most tenacious species present, viz. the teak. 



C. The gregariousness of teak under the dhaya system of cul- 

 tivation may be explained by the following causes: 



(a) Its great powers of recovery from the worst mutilation, 

 even in spite of annual fires. 



(b) The remarkable faculty of its. root-collum of producing 

 shoots up to a very great age (eighty years at the very least). 



(c) Its comparatively early seeding. 



(d) Its profuse annual seeding. 



(e) On hillsides, also the characteristic ruggedness of the ground,, 

 which offered numerous crevices, hollows and ledges for the lodge- 

 ment and germination of the large, round and heavy seed falling or 

 rolling down from above.. 



(/) The extraordinary vitality of the seed, even when scorched 

 by jungle fires. 



(g) The great relative vigour of its stool-shoots, which enable- 

 them to overtop seedlings and similar shoots of other species. 



(h) The extremely dense crowns formed by its huge spreading 

 leaves, which tolerate no undergrowth, and push back and choke up, 

 other plants even of the same height as themselves. 



(i) See (k) of Instance A. 



(j) The contemporaneous springing up of the new stool-crop as- 

 soon as the dhaya cultivator departs for fresh fields. 



(k) His practice of returning to the same place before the age 

 at which teak ceases to form a complete leaf-canopy. 



(I) See (e) of Instance A. 



(>n) The ability of young teak seedlings to withstand fairly dense 

 cover, thus admitting of an abundant advance growth coining up, 

 gradually during the absence of the dhaya, cultivator, which advance 

 growth is able to shoot away upwards as soon as it is uncovered.. 



(n) The great longevity of teak. 



Teak otherwise sporadic. 



The three preceding instances excepted, teak is everywhere else- 

 a by no means largely represented 'denizen of mixed forests. The 

 main reasons for this may be briefly summarised thus : 



{a) In forests which contain teak, the soil is apt to vary from 

 point to point with regard to the proportion of clay in it, witforegard 

 to the degree in which it is monopolised by weeds possessing a 



