102 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
embracing a range of several hundred miles, are here selected to 
furnish the chief illustrations which I have to adduce. They every¬ 
where abound with Elephants, southwards from lat. 30°, which may 
be regarded as the extreme northern limit of the habitat of the 
species at the present day. Eorests presenting similar physical cha¬ 
racters, extend along the continuation of the same range, through 
Sylhet, Chittagong, Arracan, Pegu, and the Tenasserim Provinces, 
to the point of the Malay Peninsula ; they become more and more 
tropical in their vegetation, and, as a general rule, the Elephants im¬ 
prove in size, form, and vigour, according to their more southern 
habitat. 
The ‘ Sal’ Eorests are densely covered with arboreous forms be¬ 
longing chiefly to the folowing Dicotyledonous genera:— Vatica, 
Bentaptera , Ter min alia, Conocarpus, Case aria, Dalbergia, Cedrela, 
Buchannania, Semecarpus, Boswellia, Spondias, Odina, Garruga , Ca- 
thartocarpus, Bauhinia, Butea, Brythrina, Acacia, Bobinia, Moringa, 
Kydia, Sterculia, Bombax, Grewia, Murray a, Glycosmis , Citrus, JSau- 
clea, Hymenodictyon, Bondeletia, Schrebera, Eugenia , Careya, TJlnius, 
Gmelina, Bremna, Emblica, B'Ottlera, Briedelia, Ehretia, Tetraniliera, 
Cordia, Wrightia, Holarrbena, Antidesma , Butranjiva, Grewia, Tro- 
pbis, Cochlospermum, Batis, Diospyros, Bassia, Morus, Ficus, fyc. 
But of the large number of species belonging to these genera, a 
very small percentage only of the aggregate mass of forms enters into 
the food of the Indian Elephant; the reason of this being, that some 
of the species, such as the ‘ Sal’ ( Vatica robust a), and other pre¬ 
dominating trees which extend for miles, nearly to the exclusion 
of other trees, contribute nothing to the aliment of the animal. 
In fact, the range of his arboreous selection is restricted within a 
narrow circle, and mainly to the foliage and branches of trees that 
abound in milky juice which is not acrid, belonging to the families 
of the Moreae , Artocarpeee , and iSa/.otacece, such as species of Ficus, 
Batis , Art&carpus, Bassia , and MimusopsA Of these, by far the 
greater part of his staple food is derived from the colossal fig-trees 
which abound in the forests of India; such as Ficus Inclica, the 
‘ Bur,’ or ‘Banyan-tree; F. religiosa, ‘ Peepul,’ or ‘ Bodhi-drooma,’ 
(Tree of knowledge) ; F. venosa, ‘ Pilkhun F. cordifolia, ‘ Grujeena,’ 
or ‘ Assoud F* glomerata , 1 Goolur F. Tsiela, ‘ Kuth-bur and in 
Assam, Ficus elastica, or the ‘ India-Eubber tree,’ besides other 
more southern species of similar habit and properties. The strong 
partiality of the Elephant for these trees is so well known to the 
natives, that the ‘ Obees ,’ or Pit-falls, for entrapping the animal are 
invariably constructed in their neighbourhood, and many of their old 
Sungscrit names connect them specially with the Elephant, j' He 
* Also Mesuaferrea, (Nat. Ord, Clusiacece) on the authority of Tennent’s Nat. 
Hist, of Ceylon, p. 230. 
f ‘ Nagbhundoo,’ ‘ Koonjurashnn‘Gujashun,’and ‘ Gujbhukshuk;’ all being to 
the effect of ‘food of Elephants.’ {Vide Madden. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 
Yol. xvii. p. 380, 
