xviii INTRODUCTION 



Fourth : VII. Tbe intermediate region, comprising the remainder with a 

 rainfall between 30 and 75 inches, heavier in the belts adjoining the two moist 

 regions, in hilly districts and in places along the sea-coast. 



In the paper quoted I also mentioned the large extent of arid valleys 

 in the inner Himalaya, and described the gradual but most remarkable 

 changes in the forest vegetation experienced when ascending the valley of 

 the Sutlej river, from the moist ranges of the Outer Himalaya into the dry 

 and, higher up, the arid region beyond Wangtu. Changes similar to these 

 but much more striking, are noticed when ascending from the evergreen forest 

 at the foot and on the slopes of the Western Ghats to the crest of the ghats 

 and beyond into the dry country of the Deccan or Mysore. The evergreen 

 forest disappears, its place is taken first by moist, further east by dry 

 deciduous forest, until at last the thorny scrub of the Deccan takes the place 

 of forest. 



Excluding the Himalaya, the forester distinguishes two great classes of 

 forests in India : the deciduous forest, which, unless specially protected, is 

 burnt over every year, and the evergreen forest, into which as a rule fires do 

 not enter. The deciduous forests, as is well known, are the most valuable, 

 as they contain most of the really important species. Extensive areas of ever- 

 green forest are only found in the two great moist regions, the western and 

 eastern, and not everywhere in these, for there are large areas in the moist 

 regions stocked with deciduous forest. As a rule the existence of evergreen 

 forest indicates heavier rainfall and nioister air, but there are cases where the 

 nature of the soil seems to be an important factor in this respect. Thus in 

 the lower portion of the Thaungyin valley on the British side there is a large 

 stretch of evergreen forest on deep alluvial soil. Marching through this region 

 on my way up the valley in March 1859, 1 found the mean height of this forest 

 to be 200 ft., with a few specimens of Antiaris toxicaria towering above it. 

 The ground was stocked with trees of all ages, from seedlings to tall poles,* 

 brushwood and creepers, forming a dense mass of vegetation 200 ft. high. 

 Higher up the valley on undulating ground deciduous forest with a con- 

 siderable amount of Teak prevails. Something similar I have seen on the 

 head waters of the Attaran river, where stretches of alluvial soil are stocked 

 with evergreen, and hills or undulating ground with deciduous forest. Aspect 

 also has something to do with the distribution of these two classes of forest. 

 In Burma I have often seen one side of a valley clothed with evergreen, and 

 the other with deciduous forest. The conditions which in the moist regions 

 of India govern this matter will doubtless eventually be more fully examined. 

 The Kans of the Sorub Taluka of Mysore, isolated patches of evergreen forest, 

 in which the Pepper vine is cultivated, are specially recommended for study. 



Stretches of evergreen forest are also found on hills in the intermediate and 

 dry regions, for instance on the Shevaroy and Javadi hills, and in the 

 Cuddapah and Karnul districts of Madras, where the moisture is greater than 

 in the country surrounding these hills. They are sometimes designated 

 as dry evergreen forest, some of the more prominent trees being : Ochna 

 Gamblei, Terminalia pallida, Eugenia alternifolia, Strychnos potatorum. 



On the east side of the Peninsula, near the coast, under the influence of the 

 North-east Monsoon, extensive tracts of waste lands and low hills are stocked 

 with a kind of nearly evergreen forest growth, which I have designated 

 as semi-evergreen scrub,"}" some of the prominent species of which are : Flacourtia 

 Ramontchi, Pterospermum suberifolium, Hugonia Mystax, Erytliroxylon 

 monogynum, Zizyphus Xylopyrus, Eugenia bracteata, Webera corymbosa, 

 Canthium parviflorum, Maba buxifolia, Carissa spinarum, Ehretia 

 buxifolia. 



* The species of the evergreen forest, even more than Beech and Silver Fir in 

 Europe, spring up and are able to live in deep shade. 



f Brandis, Suggestions on Forest Administration, Madras, p. 110 (18S3). 



