the sandstones and other sedimentary less-altered rocks are poorest in this respect.

The shrubby vegetation of these forests is densest along water-courses, in places which have been cleared of the taller trees, and along the outskirts of the forests, almost disappearing in the dark interior.

Climbing palms are numerous, such as Nectocomiopsis paradoxus, Calamus latifolius, and longisetus. Bamboos, such as Dinochloa M'Clellandii, Gigantochloa macrostachya, Dendrocalamus longispathus and Brandisii, Bambusa polymorpha, are also numerous. Several species of these bamboos frequently attain a height of 90 to 100 feet. Palms and screw-pines are found dispersed throughout these forests.

(3) The Carnatic Region. This is a different class of forest from the one above described. When in good condition, it presents a dense thicket of close-grown trees, few of any great size, but most of them giving hard valuable woods. More often, owing to careless cutting, it is reduced to a condition of thorny scrub. The area in which this class of forest is found begins at the Mahanadi and goes down almost the whole length of the eastern coast, the best forests being probably those of Nellore, Cuddapah, and North Arcot. Chief among the trees of this forest are Mimusops hexandra, Diospyros Ebenum, Pterospermum, Eugenia, Memecylon, Pleurostylia; while some few deciduous trees, like Chloroxylon Swietenia and Soymida febrifuga, occasionally occur. When in bad condition, thorny shrubs, such as Randia, Canthium, Dichrostachys and Zizyphus, are prominent; but when in good order, these forests are valuable sources of fuel and give some of the hardest woods of the country.

(4) Sub-Himalayan Region. This region covers the belt of low country bordering on the spurs of the eastern Sub-Himalayan range, entering deep into their valleys and covering the slopes of the lower spurs.

The number of species composing the forest is very great and the trees individually attain a great size, of which the more important are the following: Schima Wallichii, Terminalia tomentosa and myriocarpa; Artocarpus Chaplasha; Cinnamomum glanduliferum, Echinocarpus sterculiaceus, Bombax malabaricum, Dillenia indica, Eugenia formosa and Pterospermum acerifolium. On the lower hills occurs a Magnolia, also Michelia champaca and Duabanga sonneratioides. At still higher elevations are found Castanopsis indica, Alnus

nepalensis and Bucklandia populnea. This region runs into the Alpine Forest Zone (3) described later on.

The ground in these forests is usually covered with a dense growth of ferns, climbers and inferior shrubs, which together form a tangled mass, rendering it extremely difficult to penetrate into their interior. In the hilly portions a dense growth of bamboo (Dendrocalamus) occurs, while the valleys are filled with screw-pines and palms. Of the latter such species as Wallichia disticha, Caryota urens, Areca gracilis and Phænix rupicola are conspicuous.

B. THE DECIDUOUS FOREST ZONE

For Forestry purposes this zone may be divided into two chief regions: (1) The Central India Deciduous Region, (2) The Burma Deciduous Region.

(1) The Central India Deciduous Region. This region includes what is practically the type-forest of India. It extends from the southern slopes of the Punjab Himalaya, eastwards up the valley of Assam and southwards almost to Cape Comorin. It varies both in character and species in different parts of the great extent of country it covers, but its general characteristics and growth remain the same. Some species occur in it almost universally, such as Terminalia tomentosa, Arjuna (along streams), belerica and Chebula; Lagerstroemia parviflora, Butea frondosa and Bombax. Others are found in more or less local areas. Anogeissus does not extend to Northern Bengal; Pterocarpus marsupium and Bassia latifolia scarcely cross the Ganges northwards; while Dillenia and Careya are rare south of the Kistna. This deciduous forest type covers the plains country of the North-Western Provinces, the Terai, the Duars and Chota Nagpur, the hill tracts of Orissa and the Circars, the Central Provinces, Behar, Guzerat and Central India, Hyderabad and the East Mahratta country, the Nellary, Cuddapah and Mysore Hills, the hills of Coimbatore and Salem, the eastern slopes of the Nilgiris, Palnis (Pulneys) and parts of those of Tinnevelly, especially on slopes with a southern aspect. It contains several sub-regions characterised by their principal trees. These consist of (a) the region of Sâl (Shorea robusta), which follows the foot of the Himalaya from the Sutlej to the Borelli, and extends southwards nearly to the Godavari in the Circars and to Nagpur in the Central Provinces; (b) the region of Ironwood (Xylia dolabriformis) in the forests of the Circars from the Mahanadi

to the Kistna, extending westward into the Chanda district and Hyderabad; (c) the region of Teak (Tectona grandis), which commences where the Sâl leaves off and extends southwards to the end, embracing in its general area (d) the region of Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) on the hills of Cuddapah and North Arcot, and (e) the region of Sandal (Santalum album) on the hill ranges of Bellary, Coimbatore and Salem and the northern slopes of the Nilgiris.

The sâl is the chief species of sub-region (a). It occupies two principal tracts in India. Gamble thus describes these tracts : The first is a belt at the foot of the Himalaya and running into its valleys and up its lower hills to 3000 or 4000 feet, and exceptionally, as for instance at Lansdowne, to a still higher altitude. According to J. E. T. Aitchison ("Flora of Hoshiarpur," Journ. Linn. Soc., 1868), the Purwain Range is the western limit. Brandis says it occurs in patches on the Bias. It is found in the Kangra Valley, and the regular continuous forest commences in the Umbála Siwaliks, west of the Jumna, whence it passes through Dehra Dun, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Kumaon, Oudh, Gorakhpur, Nepal, the Darjeeling Terai, W. and E. Duars and up the Assam Valley, with an out-lier in the Garo Hills. The second is the Central Indian belt, and the sâl country begins on the Ganges near Rajmehal and passes through the Sonthal Parganas, Rewah, Chota Nagpur, the Central Provinces, Orissa and the Northern Circars, ending in the Palkonda Range of Vizagapatam and the forests of Jeypur.

The most uniformly gregarious among the timber trees of India, the sâl, in the forests in which it occurs, is always the prevailing tree, greater in number of individuals than all the rest put together. Brandis (Journ. Linn. Soc., XXXI, 6) says regarding it: "In a climate and on soil which suit it, it reigns supreme. The most suitable soil is either sandstone, as in many parts of Central India, or alternating beds of shingle and sand, such as are found at the foot of the Himalaya, or loam resting on gravel and sand."

For Xylia dolabriformis in sub-region (b) Gamble gives the distribution as "Eastern and Western Ghats of South India in deciduous forest, extending north to Orissa and Bombay, but not beyond Chanda in the Central Provinces, often more or less gregarious as in S. Canara and Malabar and the Upper Godavari." Next to teak this tree is one of the principal trees of the Burma deciduous region.

The sub-region (c) forms the western or Indian tract occupied by the teak (Tectona grandis), which is practically the whole of the peninsula of India, the eastern tract being the Burmese. Gamble gives the following distribution of this tree: "The Indian Region (of the teak) has for its northern limit the Rivers Nerbudda and Mahanadi, but here and there it may occasionally be found north of this line, as in Jhansi and Banda, while south of it it scarcely occurs in Orissa or the Circars. It is found in deciduous forests, but is not gregarious; and the localities where the most important forests are found are (1) Chanda District, Central Provinces; (2) North Canara ; (3) Wynaad, especially the tracts known as Benné and Mudumalai; (4) the Anaimalai Hills; (5) Travancore. There are also considerable extents of teak forest in other parts of the Central Provinces, in Berar and Bombay; on both sides of the Godavari in Bhadrachalam, Rumpa and Yernagudem ; in the Nallamalai Hills of Kurnool and Cuddapah; in South Arcot and in Mysore. But teak may be found sporadically in places in forests throughout the Indian Region, and even in such very dry, apparently barren, rocky hills as those of Western Kurnool and Bellary, patches of stunted more or less gregarious teak are not uncommon."

Chief among other trees characteristic of these forests are the Terminalias, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Anogeissus latifolia, Dillenia indica, Eugenia jambolana, Ougeinia dalbergioides, Soymida febrifuga, Chloroxylon Swietenia, Pterocarpus marsupium, Diospyros melanoxylon, Bassia latifolia, Dalbergias, Albizzias, Bombax, Wrightia, Garuga, Bursera, Holarrhena, and there are many others, while the small male Bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) is almost universally characteristic. In this same region occur also the sissoo (Dalbergia Sissoo), gregarious along streams in the region between the Himalaya and the Ganges, and the Acacia Catechu, the khair or cutch tree, which, with other species of Acacia, such as suma, and leucophlæa, is everywhere indicative of a somewhat poor sandy soil. Forming part of this same region, too, is the great Regada or "black-cotton country," where the Acacia arabica is the common tree, coming up wherever the land lies fallow for a while, and accompanied sometimes by Albizzia Lebbek, Melia indica, Poinciana elata and Balanites Roxburghii.

(2) The Burmese deciduous forests. These are the typical forests of the drier parts of Burma, and are unquestionably