236 



grasses, while the cultivation prevents the development of such 

 grasses. In other cases grazing has been allowed with the 

 object of keeping down the grass-growth until the tree-seedlings 

 have become established, and elsewhere, quick-growing, accom- 

 modating tree-species have been introduced artificially into the 

 grassland in the hope that they will oust the grasses. Providing 

 the soil is suitable, the greater the rainfall, the more quickly 

 as a rule does woodland reassert itself in India on grasslands 

 from which the forest has been cleared, and vice versa. 

 . 217. Root-suckers which are capa- 



Roo "suckers ^ e of attaining a height of several ' feet in one year are 

 Favoured obviously more able to hold their own in such grasslands than 

 in the are minute seedlings, and species which reproduce them- 



with^ 6 selves readily by root-suckers are thus often able to successfully 

 Grasses. conquer the grasses in such areas. Evidence of this is often 

 seen in India in the practically pure forests of Ougeinia 

 dalbergioides and Diospyros tomentosa which now occupy the 

 sites of old abandoned fields. 



