100 6BEGABI0USNES3 AKD SOCIABTLITT 01" SPECIES. 



(h) Hence also its remarkable faculty of growing up again from 

 the stool, a single stool of less than 1 foot diameter being capable 

 of throwing up a thick, dense clump of as many as 20 — 50 shoots, 



(e) The great hardihood of its young individuals which thrive 

 under complete exposu -e. 



(j) Singular paucity of companion species able to compete 

 witn it in size. 



(A) The persistence of its foliage during at least ten months 

 of the year, while the few companion species of its own stature 

 are leafless for many months together. 



(J) Its clos3 and vigorous spread of roots. 



(m) Comparatively rapid growth for the first few years of its 

 seedlings as ioo i as they are established, and of its stool-shoots 

 from the rro-nent they appsar. 



(ra) Ability to thrive on the steepest slopes. 



(o) Greater longevity thaa that enjoyed by the majo.ity of its 

 companions. 



Eoiwellia serrata. 



This tree is fpread over the whole region of Central India, but 

 grows gregariously as an upper crop only o i the dry trap and sand- 

 stone hills and plateai^x there, and forms an almost entirely pure 

 forest where the amount of iron in^the soil becomes marked. In this 

 last case, the single circu nstanc© of the soil being ferruginous 

 excludes every other specie^. The causes which reader the tree 

 gregarious elsewhere n ay he shortly stated thus — 



(a) Dryness, poverty, and rocky nature of the soil, which pre- 

 vent most of the fe,v companion species from li ing up to the 

 same level with it. 



(6) Its aromatic resinous leaves, which save ft from the mouth 

 of cattle and other animals and from lopping for fodder. 



(c) The extraordinary ease with which it produces adventitious 

 buds on wounds ; whence in a great measure its unique power of 

 recovery, and, therefore, of surviving the severest mutilation. 



(d) Its faculty of throwing up strong and numerous suckers. 



(e) Its abundant annual seeding. 



(/) Its extremely rapid growth from the earliest seedling 

 stage. 



{g) Its conspicuous ability to vnthstand the fiercest insolation 

 and most prolonged drought, owing to the thicliness and vitality 

 of the living bark, its viscid resinous sap and the absence of foUage 

 throughout the entire hot weather. 



