rt cflned. 



HOLE : SOME INDIAN GRASSES AND THEIR CEC01.0GY. 3 



our forest grasslands (a) with the object of improving the yield of fodder and (b) with the 

 object of hastening their afforestation having been recognised, the Forest Botanist was 

 directed in October 1908 to make a beginning with this work by studying the Savannah- 

 grasses of the Sal (Shorea robusta) forests in Northern India, The present paper includes 

 the results of the work which it has been found possible to carry out since that date, in the 

 intervals of heavy educational and other duties in connection with the organisation of the 

 Botany branch of the Imperial Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun. 



4. In order to obtain useful information Ecological 

 regarding the best method of treatment to be applied to grasslands with the object of pSSt* 1 

 improving the fodder yield on the one hand, and of favouring their natural afforestation SjJSi. 

 with valuable forest trees on the other, an cecological study of the various grasses and woody 

 species concerned is necessitated. 



5. As the importance of (Ecology is often (Ecology 

 insufficiently appreciated it appears desirable to explain, somewhat in detail, what is 

 implied by this term. (Ecology has been defined as " the science treating of the reciprocal 

 relations of organisms and the external world ( oikos, a house, Xoyo<;, theory)" 1 and this 

 has been further elaborated by one of the highest cecological authorities as follows : — 



" It teaches us how plants or plant-communities adjust their forms and modes of 

 behaviour to actually operating factors, such as the amounts of available water, heat, light, 

 nutriment, and so forth. 



A casual glance shows that species by no means dispose their individuals uniformly 

 over the whole area in which they occur, but group them into communities of very varied 

 physiognomy. (Ecology seeks — 



(1) To find out which species are commonly associated together upon similar habitats 



(stations). This easy task merely involves the determination or description 

 of a series of facts. 



(2) To sketch the physiognomy of the vegetation and the landscape. This is not a 



difficult operation. 



(3) To answer the questions — 



Why each species has its own special habit and habitat, 

 Why the species congregate to form definite communities, 

 Why these have a characteristic physiognomy. 

 This is a far more difficult matter and leads us — 



(4) To investigate the problems concerning the economy of plants, the demands that 



they make on their environment, and the means that they employ to utilise 



the surrounding conditions and to adapt their external and internal structure 



and general form for that purpose." 2 



Having therefore obtained a full knowledge of the cecology of a particular species, such 



as the Sal tree, and being able to fully explain why the species thrives under certain condi- 



1 (Ecology of Plants. By E. Warming, Eng. Edn., 1909, p, 1. 



2 Warming, I.e., p. 2. 



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