ON THE PREPARATION OF WOOD SPECIMENS FOR EXHIBITION. 311 
I fear, however, that this is the exception rather than the general 
rule, and that this wood owes the particular estimation in which it 
is held to the fact that the supplies of mahogany—a wood with 
which it more directly enters into competition—from Honduras, 
Mexico, and Cuba have been somewhat short recently. It is 
important, however, to notice this, because it is with special view 
to competition, and, wherever practicable, the substitution of 
British, that is Indian and Colonial, woods for those of foreign 
growth, that this necessity for uniformity in display is becoming 
more urgent. Even as I write the supply of English ash is scanty, 
and any really satisfactory substitute for it could at once command 
a market and a value. 
Now the exhibition of woods and timber specimens of all. sorts 
has before it two main objects—/irst, their interest for scientists ; 
second, their economic value. 
In the preparation of the specimens, therefore, these two objects 
should never be lost sight of; and in attempting to attain and 
illustrate them I would give the first place to 
Tue PREPARATION OF Forest PLANS AND CHARTS, 
I have elsewhere insisted upon the great usefulness of maps and 
plans, especially when the woods of a country which has different 
and sometimes sharply-defined zones, and correspondingly distinctive 
flora, are to be exhibited. To those who witnessed the display made 
by the Japanese Government at Edinburgh, or by the Government 
of Norway at Amsterdam, this insistence on my part may appear 
gratuitous. And I am aware that the Government of India, as 
well as our foreign neighbours, have nothing to learn regarding 
the usefulness of maps. Of the former, indeed, an intelligent 
French critic has thus written in reviewing the list of their 
exhibits :— 
“ Iiterature and General Cartography.—In my opinion this is 
the group which enables us to form the best judgment of the degree 
of perfection to which the technical value of personal administration 
has arrived. The Indian Forest Department has nothing to fear 
from the results of such criticism.” 
My insistence, therefore, is only advanced on the principle that 
gutta cavat lapidem non wi sed sepe cadendo.1 And if my 
1 A drop of water hollows out a stone not by force, but by constant 
dripping. 
