164 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIBTY. 
destructive to vegetation, the wind is nevertheless a most nec essary 
assistant for the distribution of plants, which I shall presently show. 
The fatal effect of strong winds or of constant monsoon winds is 
well illustrated in sail and the trees at Malabar-Point form one 
of the most interesting sights of this city. We see there how the 
Nandruk-trees only grow toa few feet above the ground, and then 
are forced to continue their growth in a horizontal direction, or how 
the trunk of a common pra in the struggle for existence has 
assumed a shapo which may be almost compared to that of a wind- 
ing serpent. Itis a well known fact thatthe more exposed points of 
elevated plateaus or mountains are frequently destitute of trees, 
or that the species found in such localities by their peculiar 
structure are singularly adapted to resist the force of the wind, while 
ravines and other sheltered places are often conspicuous by the 
richness of their vegetation. It is also a common experience, that 
many of the beautiful Indian trees will not grow when exposed to 
the full force of the monsoon, though this fact is not always due to 
the force of the wind only, bat more frequently to the numerous 
particles of salt that are brought from the sea by the wind On the 
other hand, most palms, as the Cocoanut palm and common Date 
palm, abound and flourish in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea. 
It has even been said that the sea breeze is absolutely necessary 
for many palms, This statement is however amply contradicted | by 
the successful culture of most palmsin European hot-houses ; the 
truthis probably that dry land winds prove dangerous to their 
growth. 
The means by which trees are protected against the fatal effects 
of wind, which often seriously affect their distribution, are either 
sheltered localities or peculiar structures of the root, stem, or crown 
of the tree. Of sheltered localities I have already mentioned ravines, 
and may further add dense forests and sheltered plains, but occa- 
sionally plants of the same species associate in large clumps, and 
thereby mutually protect each other. Among the structures of trees, 
with regard to protection, may be mentioned deep growing tapering 
roots, a frequent occurrence in arboreous plants ; a solid or flexible 
trunk, as we find in most palms, to which is sometimes added a ten- 
dency to grow against the wind, as in the Cocoanut palm ; peculiar 
swelling of the stem, as in the West Indian Oreodora regta ; or a conti- 
nual ae of woody leaf scars, as in Phenix he estris, the common 
date palm. Other trees havea very large and dense ly-leaved crown, as 
content 
peepee 
