16 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
in much of this the protection is as yet not very much advanced ; 
and to account for this Dr Schlich says: ‘* The fact seems to be 
“ that the Ceylon Government has, in reality, never been quite in 
‘earnest to carry out an efficient scheme of forest conservancy.” 
The net revenue is about £5600, and there is a conservator 
with eight assistants. The chief trees yielding export woods 
are the ebony (Déospyros Ebenum), the satinwood (Chloroxylon 
Swietenta), halmilla (Berrya Ammonilla), ironwood (Mimusops 
indica), and the Palmyra palm (orassus flabelliformis). 
In the Straits Settlements, and in the Federated Malay States, 
forest work has begun in real earnest on a definite basis, and 
especial attention is to be paid to the gutta-percha tree (Palaguium 
Gutta). 
The forests of Australasia and their timber resources are very 
fully dealt with. The area includes the Australian Common- 
wealth and New Zealand, the former of which has 166,000 
square miles and the latter 32,000 square miles of forest, being 
6.4 per cent. of the total area. Everywhere there are the 
remains of immense forests of valuable timber-trees, but nothing 
of any consequence seems to be done to arrest the gradual 
clearing of all these forests, or even to secure to the Government 
a reasonable proportion of the value of the trees removed. It 
may be hoped that copies of Dr Schlich’s book will find their 
way to Australia and New Zealand, and that some of the ardent 
politicians in those countries will take the matter up and 
endeavour to get it made a national question, apart from local 
party politics, so that the terrible consequences which may be 
expected from gradual complete denudation may be avoided in 
time. 
‘Of all the colonies, the Cape has most successfully grappled 
with the forest question.” These are the opening words of 
Chapter III., and Dr Schlich’s detailed account explains what 
has been done in each of the Cape colonies. Nearly everywhere, 
partly because the indigenous trees are of little value and of slow 
growth, plantations have had to be made, and in Cape Colony 
the chief tree planted is the cluster pine (Pius Pinaster). A 
small but efficient staff has been organised in each colony, and 
good work is being done in all. Small beginnings have also 
been made in other African colonies, as in Nigeria, the East 
African Protectorate, and, chief of all, the Soudan. In the latter 
the chief demand is for fuel for the railways and the Nile 
