FLORA OF THE SUNDRIBUNS. 
^42 
temple-tank), Anisomeles ovata^ Acalypha indica, Trema orientalise 
Ficus religiosa, Ficus infectoria^ Dioscorea pentaphylla^ Commelina 
hengalensis^ Kyllinga triceps^ Fimbristylis monostachya, Panicum 
colonuiUe Panicum prostratumy Setaria glauca^ and (on the walls) 
Adianfum lunulatum. All of the species here enumerated are 
plants charactersitic of village-shrubberies, hedges and waste-places 
in the Bengal plain. Except Luff a graveolens, which is plentiful in 
the Upper Gangetic plain, but for which this would appear to be the 
first record from the deltaic alluvium, all of them are to be found in 
the districts of the 24-Perganahs and Khulna outside the Sundribuns. 
Yet none of them have been found anywhere else wdthin the Sundri- 
buns. Their presence in such a spot as the Jatta platform affords 
evidence of the power possessed by species of this kind, probably 
mostly casually introduced while the locality was actually occupied, 
to persist under favourable conditions. Nor could conditions more 
favourable be readily conceived. The slight degree of artificial eleva- 
tion given to the site of this old temple, augmented by a further 
elevation due to the crumbling of the walls of the temple courtyard,* 
provides a foothold for these species whereon the conditions to which 
they are accustomed in the Bengal plain are exactly reproduced. 
Moreover, the tiny platform is separated by many leagues of low 
swampy land, suitable only for the species characteristic of the Sundri- 
forests, from the nearest spot on w^hich competing species can 
well exist and whence invading forms could readily come. If the 
conditions afforded by the higher and drier ground of the platform are 
so sharply contrasted with those of the immediate environment as 
to prevent surprise that these platform plants have not invaded the 
swamp-forests, this contrast equally explains why the species of the 
swamp-forests show just as little tendency to overrun the platform. 
The surrounding forest, therefore, in place of entering into competi- 
tion with the species to be met with on the artificially raised mounds 
that indicate abandoned settlements, affords in reality the best safe- 
guard, to such plants as have already become established there, 
against outside competition. 
The extent to which this is the case is better appreciated when 
the number of species that are common to the Jatta platform and 
to (a) other clearings, (b) the sea-face, and (c) the swamp-forests is 
considered. With other similar mounds or platforms within the 
limits of the Sundribuns the Jatta one shares only Glycosrnis penta- 
phylla and Breynia rhamnoides. Species of this class that have 
* JaUa Pagoda itself is more or less intact and forms a landmark in the 
navigation of the khals and creeks in its vicinity. 
