Page:The Journal of Indian Botany, Volume III.djvu/63

MIXED FORMATIONS IN TIME.

33 If I have said enough to indicate clearly what the new theory is which I am bringing forward, and in what way it promises to be of service to Indian oecology, then my task is completed for the present. I trust the statement may lead to criticism and discussion.

Certain familiar facts are briefly described regarding climatic conditions in those parts of the world where a strong summer monsoon rain is experienced, alternating with a long and severe drought.

The theory is advanced that in such an area it often happens that we cannot regard a small and reasonably homogeneous part of it as occupied by a single unit (“ formation ”) of vegetation, but rather that two (or even three) entirely different plant communities regularly alternate with one another, though each persists to some extent through the dominant phases of the other, thus giving rise to the idea of “ Mixed formations in time.”

It is suggested that Indian oncological conditions differ so widely from those of Europe and America that it is almost useless to try and fit our oecological results into their systems. India will have to evolve her own system of oecological classification.

Madhavlal Ranchhodlal Science Institute,

Ahmed abad,

11th August, 1922.