GEE6AEIOT7SNESS AND SOCTABIIITT OP SPEQIES. 105 



abandonment of the fields in question, gave to the crop naora or less 

 the character of one consisting of trees of one and the same age and 

 thus favoured the most tenacious species present, viz. the teak. 



0. — The gregariousness of teak under the dhaya system of cul- 

 tivation may be explained by the following causes: — 



(a) Its great powers of recovery from the worst mutilation, 

 even in spite of annual fires. 



(h) The remarkable faculty of its, root-collum of producing 

 shoots up to a very great age (eighty years at the very least). 



(c) Its comparatively early seeding. 



(d) Its profuse annual seeding. 



(e) On hillsides, also the characteristic ruggedness of the ground, 

 which offered numerous crevices, hollows and ledges for the lodge- 

 ment and germination of the large, round and heavy seed, falhng or 

 rolling down from above. 



(f) The extraordinary vitaUty of tha seed, even when scorched 

 by jungle fires. 



(g) The great relative vigour of its stool-shoots, which enable 

 them to overtop seedhngs and similar shoots of other species. 



(h) The extreniely dense crowns formed by its huge spreading^ 

 leaves, wMch tolerate no undergrowth, and push back and choke up 

 other plants even ol the same height as themselves. 



(i) See (k) of Instance A. 



(j) The contemporaneous springing up of the new staol-crop as 

 soon as the dhaya cultivator departs for fresh fields. 



(k) His practice of returning to the same place before the ag© 

 at which teak ceases to form a complete leaf-canopy. 



{I) See (e) of Instance A. 



(m) The ability of young teak seedhngs to withstand fairly dens© 

 cover, thus admitting of an abundant advance growth coming up 

 gradually during the absence of the dhaya cultivator, which advance 

 growth is able to shoot away upwards as soon as it is uncovered. 



(n) The great longevity of teak. 



Teak otherwise sporadic. 



The three preceding instances excepted, teak is everywhere else 

 a by no means largely represented denizen of mixed forests. The 

 main reasons for this may be briefly summarised thus : — ■ 



(a) In forests which contain teak, the soil is apt to vary from 

 point to point with regard to the proportion of clay in it, with regard 

 to the degree in which it is monopohsed by weeds possessing a 



