PART I. 



For years past it has been my delight to collect 

 introductory, the natural products of our tropical forests, 

 in the hope of one day ascertaining their commercial 

 value. Hitherto, owing to circumstances over which 

 I have had no control, my hopes have not been real- 

 ized. At last, however, an opportunity, of which I 

 gladly avail myself, occurs of turning to advantage 

 the experience I have gained in the Forest Depart- 

 ment of India during the last nineteen years. 



1. The value of Bamboo as a paper-producing 

 Ba Zk g as mate p rS er ' material has recently been shown by 

 Mr. Thomas Eoutledge,* who has spared himself no 

 trouble in detailing what appears to him the most 

 economical process of turning this valuable product 

 to account. 



2. In consequence, to some extent, of the appear- 

 Early Government ance of his pamphlet, the authorities in 



experiments with r 



British Burma resolved to make experi- 

 ments, and I was deputed by the Conservator of 

 Forests to plant one acre of ground with each of the 

 four commonest varieties of Bamboo, with a view to 

 ascertaining their relative fibre-yielding capabilities. 



* Bamboo considered as a Paper-making Material. By T. Routledge. 

 E. and F. N. Spon, London, 1875. 



