232 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



The forest trees are not frequently thrown down, though 

 their branches are wrenched off. No trees hke EngHsh 

 elms, whose roots do not penetrate right down into the 

 ground, could exist at all in India. The fig-trees, like the 

 pipal, banian, paker, and harrar, are principally made up 

 of air-roots, which cling together and anchor the tree to 

 the ground, taking hold of the soil like guy-ropes and 

 clasping other trees, and they are safe against these storms. 

 The mango and mahua, which are planted all over India 

 for their fruit, seem to stand any storms ; as their stems 

 are not of great height, and their roots, like gnarled oaks, 

 grow well down into the alluvial soil. The semal or 

 cotton tree {Bombax heptaphyllum), well known in most 

 tropical countries for its scarlet flowers and cotton-bear- 

 ing seed capsules and its enormous height, is secured 

 by nature from storms by its habit of growing great 

 buttresses round its stem, which prop it up like those of a 

 lofty cathedral. The sal and teak trees, found in the 

 best timber forests, are capable of standing the effect of 

 storms from their habit of growing together and protecting 

 one another, and from their possessing very deep roots 

 and strong stems, well proportioned and not overloaded 

 with leafy boughs. The saj {Terminalia tomentosa) is 

 another conspicuous and handsome tree of the same 

 character. The survival of the fittest only is weU ex- 

 emplified among these trees. Those only with very 

 thick succulent bark and leathery leaves can stand the 

 scorching of the jungle fires ; and the deep penetration of 

 the roots is essential to draw moisture from the earth, some 

 20 feet below the surface, during the prolonged droughts 

 of the dry season. There is one deep-rooted species of 

 elm common, the Cellis austraica. It reverses the season 

 of casting its leaves, which wither and fall off in the hot 

 weather, and flowers in the early months of the cold season. 



