Noy. 1907. ] THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 363 
’ 
Sir DretTricH BRANDIS, K.C.1LE., F.RS. 
Dietrich Brandis, the son of Dr. Christian Brandis, Professor 
of Philosophy in Bonn University, was born at Bonn in 
April 1824. In his boyhood he accompanied his father to 
Greece, and remained there for several years. On returning 
to Germany he was educated at the Universities of Copen- 
hagen, Gottingen, and Bonn, and was appointed Lecturer on 
Botany at Bonn in 1849, In 1859 he married a daughter 
of Dr. Marshman of Bengal, father-in-law of General Sir 
Henry Havelock, and this circumstance opened up for him a 
highly distinguished career. After the annexation of the 
province of Pegu, Lower Burma, it became evident to Lord 
Dalhousie that the wanton destruction of the great teak 
forests would speedily lead to a complete stoppage of the 
supply. While he was on the outlook for a suitable man to 
put in charge of the forests, Sir Henry Havelock suggested 
his brother-in-law, Dr. Brandis. The outcome was that 
Brandis reached Calcutta in 1856, and immediately under- 
took the strenuous but ultimately successfully accomplished 
task of placing the teak forests under systematic management. 
The same system was later applied to the teak forests of 
Upper Burma, so that now the Burmese forests are the chief 
source of the supply of teak timber for the world, and yield 
an annual revenue ot £200,000.  Brandis’s next great under- 
taking was the setting up of the Indian Forest Conservancy 
Organisation. In early times India appears to have been 
covered by great forests. For centuries these had been 
undergoing destruction by the practice of nomadic tribes 
moving from place to place and firing the forests wherever 
they went to obtain grass and open places for cultivation. 
The British occupation immensely accelerated the rate of 
destruction, and failure to meet the requirements of public 
works warned administrators that the reckless destruction of 
trees had been a disastrous mistake. As early as 1855 con- 
servators of forests were appointed in Bombay-and Madras, 
as well as in Burma. In 1862, on the recommendation 
apparently of a Fellow of this Society and a distinguished 
pioneer of forest conservancy in India, Dr. Hugh Cleghorn of 
Stravithie, Lord Dalhousie summoned Dr. Brandis to Simla 
to consult as to the steps to be taken to more effectually 
