292 



which may be of practical utility is contained in the manuscript Re- 

 ports and Proceedings of the late " Plantation Committee," it is de- 

 sirable that the same should, if practicable, be abstracted and given 

 to the public. 



Capt. Strachey said he could not agree with those who thought 

 that forests had much influence on climate. It was a notion that 

 they encouraged rain, but it was more probable that rain was the 

 cause of forests. He alluded to districts in India, in w^hich the forest 

 vegetation was just in proportion to the fall of rain, being small and 

 diminutive where there was little rain, and abundant and gigantic 

 where there was much rain. In temperate climates forests might 

 produce an effect, but certainly not in the tropics. With regard to 

 the economical question, there could be no doubt that it was foolish 

 to destroy what was valuable, but we had not the power to arrest the 

 present destruction of forests in India. 



Mr. Bunbury enumerated several instances where forests did not 

 exist, and yet there was much rain, and others where forests existed 

 and there was little rain. Humboldt was our great authority on this 

 subject, and he had recorded his opinions of the influence of forests 

 on climate. In many districts where forests were cleared and single 

 individuals left, these latter soon died from the want of the influence 

 of their neighbours. 



Dr. Lankester pointed out that according to the laws of vegetation 

 plants must be supplied with water in a liquid or vaporous form for 

 their growth, and that all the facts which had been mentioned, and 

 which at first sight appeared opposed to each other, might be ex- 

 plained. That forests did not always grow in rainy districts arose 

 probably from the waters accumulating and forming morasses in 

 which forest-trees would not grow. In districts where there was not 

 much rain, there might be much moisture in the atmosphere ; rain in 

 general supplied only a very small quantity of the water I'equired by 

 plants. Vegetable physiology afforded no explanation of the effects 

 on climate, attributed by some observers to forests. 



Note in reference to the Paper by the late Mr. W. Griffith, ' On the 

 Structure of the Ascklia and Stoniata of Dischidia liaffiesiana.^ 

 By George Luxfoud, F.B.S.E., &c. 



The editorial remarks on the inconvenience arising from delay in 

 the publication of the 'Transactions of the Linnean Society' (Phytol. 



