BOTAXr. 3 



Tenasscrim coast, and (luring a residence of fourteen niontlis collected specimens 

 of 1700 species of indigenous plants. 



" Soon after the close of tlie second Burmese war, Dr. MaeClelland was appointed 

 Superintendent of Forests in I'egu, and in his Keport on the Teak, notices all the 

 piinuipal timber trees in the country. More recently the llev. C. Parish, Chaplain, 

 ilaulmain, has paid considerable attention to the botany of the country, and many 

 of his collection have been described by 8ir J. D. Hooker. He has given special 

 attention to the ferns and mosses, which had previously been almost neglected." 

 Thus wrote Dr. Mason in ISCO, but since then, giant strides have been made in 

 digesting and extending the labours of the earlier pioneers. Dr. MaeClelland was 

 followed by Dr. Braiidis as Conservator of Torests of J5urnia, and in 18(;2 that 

 officer published a "List of specimens of some of the woods of British Burma," 

 embracing 113 species, of which about two-thirds were alone specilieally determined. 

 This, of course, was a hastily compiled list for the international exhibition, but it 

 shows how little was known in those days of the resources of the Burmese forests, 

 since the above number is only attained by including tlierein worthless woods sudi 

 as Momakha {Salix), Lepan {Humbax), Letkoh [S/firith'd), Thapon [Ficim), and some 

 others, utterly without claim to rank among the useful timbers of the Province. 



I refer therefore to them nwrely to show how vast and unexplored was the field 

 that presented itself to the predecessors of the present race of Forest Ofiicers, and 

 how great was the task before them, of coping with the exuberant wealth of botanical 

 products in that favoured region. Tliis is no ])laco to pass in review the labours of 

 these men, but one among them, whoso place knows him no longer, may be specitied, 

 as to him we owe, not only a full and well-digested account of the general Botany 

 of Burma, but also the production of a work specially designed for use by Forest 

 officers, and treating of the branch of botany more specially interesting to them. 

 That man was Suljiiz Kurz, and the last-mentioned work was his "Forest Flora of 

 British Burma," which, with his numerous contributions to the pages of the Jouinal 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, constitutes the source wherefrom the present 

 account of the botany of Btirma is mainly drawn. 



Dr. Mason thus concludes his i)rc])aratory remarks on the Botany of Burma : 

 " "Wlum more attention has been paid to the geograpliical distribution of plants, the 

 Burmese flora will probably show that the climate of the plains on this coast 

 corresponds to one on the hills several thousand feet high on the other coast (/.«. of 

 continental India). 



" lloxb\irgh says that a species of oak, Quereus fenentra, is a native of the 

 mountains in the vicinity of Silhet ; on this coast the same species grows indigenous 

 not fifty feet above the level of the sea. A gamboge tree, Garcinia pictoria, grows, 

 he says, ' on the highest parts of Wynaad,' but the same tree grows at the foot 

 of the hills in Tavoy, which border on tide waters. A species of willow he 

 describes as ' a native of banks of rivulets and moist jdaces among the Circar 

 mountains'; but we have a species of willow on this coast which is met on every 

 stream before the influence of the tide ceases to be felt. The chestnut, Caslanm 

 Indica, he writes, ' is a native of the hilly frontier of Bengal,' but the chestmit 

 of this country, Castanea Ilnrtabanica, grows nearly down to the sea-shore. Speak- 

 ing of the wood-oil trees, Dr. Wright remarks: 'In this neighbourhood, Madras, 

 several species arc found, but all arc natives of hilly tracts forming the Balaghaut. 

 In Pegu, wlu^re they abound, they occupy the jilaius.' He refers all the species 

 of Vatica to the mountains, but we have one that drops its curious winged fruit from 

 cliffs that overhang the sea. Ardeiiia hiimilis is a conmion shrub at Tavoy, growing 

 down to the plains, but its habitat on the other coast is ' the Eastern slopes of the 

 Neilgherries in subal])ine jungle.' 



" If'riijhtea U'ullichii, Wright states, is found 'on the slopes of the Xcilghenics 

 from about the middle of the ascent to the elevation of between 1000 and 5000 

 feet,' hut 'the original specimens of this species were collected in the Tenasserim 

 Province.' A species of whortleberry is found from Tavoy to Toung-ngoo, while 

 all the other species in India are found on the mountains. The rhododendrons are 

 peculiarly extra-tropical plants, yet Mr. Parish found one iu Tavoy, Mr. Lobb 



