ON THE PREPARATION OF WOOD SPECIMENS FOR EXHIBITION, 315 
Forest of Dean, varying in age from thirty to two hundred and 
twenty-eight years, and to the thirty-three specimens of teak sent 
. from the Government plantation at Nilambir, South India. For 
these form, for foresters, exhibits second in interest to none. I 
do not want to intrude upon other men’s preserves, but the official 
reports of the Nilambér teak plantation are common. property, 
and from them, not to be too diffuse, I extract the kernel for the 
information of my readers, as under :— 
I. Trees of seven years of age grown 
(a) On alluvial soil showed a total height of 29 feet, and a 
girth at breast high of 12 inches. 
(6) On gneiss and laterite showed a total height of 30 feet, 
and a mean girth of 13 inches. 
II. Trees of thirty years of age grown 
(a) On alluvial soil showed a total height of 85 feet, and a 
girth at breast high of 35 inches. 
(0) On gneiss and laterite showed a total height of 50 feet, 
and a girth of 24 inches. 
Here it is interesting to notice how rapidly after the seventh 
year the trees planted in alluvial soil outstripped their companions 
which had tapped a less congenial substrata. And it conveys a 
lesson to us all, that while trees will certainly grow almost any- 
where, they can only be grown to profit and advantage where the 
subsoil is suited to their respective requirements. 
At the risk of being tedious, but for a direct reason which will 
be apparent a little further on, I append a few more figures 
regarding the rate of growth of teak in the same plantation. 
The periodical annual increment of growth in trees of nine years 
of age was found to be 1:1 cubic feet, in trees of nineteen years 
1:3 cubic feet, and in trees from nineteen to twenty-nine years 
2°8 cubic feet, showing the rapid ratio of annual growth which 
took place after they had attained the age of nineteen years. 
NOMENCLATURE. 
I come now to a subject which may be thought unnecessary. It 
seems a childish matter to insist upon giving the specimens a name, 
for the infant does that to its playthings or to the live pets which 
surround it. And yet the most extraordinary, and, I may add, the 
most fatal mistakes have arisen from incorrect nomenclature, and 
