September i, 192 i] 



NATURE 



Indian Silviculture. 



The Silviculture of Indian Trees. By Prof. R. S. 

 Troup. Vol. I, Dilleniaceae to Leg^minosac 

 (Papilionaceae). Pp. Iviii + 336 + 111. Vol. 2, 

 Leguminosae (Caesalpinieae) to Verbenaceae. 

 Pp. xi + 337-783 + iv. Vol. 3, Lauraceae to 

 Coniferae. Pp. xii + 785-1 195. (Oxford: At 

 the Clarendon Press, 192 1.) 3 vols. 5^ 55. net. 



THE history of the East India Company is 

 of interest to men of science from the 

 evidence it affords of a sustained and enlightened 

 desire to increase the natural knowledge of the 

 economic vegetable resources of its territories. 

 At times this took the form of approval of sug- 

 gestions from India, as when the Board of Fort 

 St. George was authorised in 1780 to employ a 

 Government botanist in the Madras Presidency, 

 or when the Council of Fort William received in 

 1787 "the most hearty approbation" of the Hon. 

 Court of Directors in London for a proposal to 

 establish a botanical garden in Bengal. At times 

 the proposal emanated from the Hon. Court, as 

 when in 1785 it was resolved to publish the sump- 

 tuous volumes of Roxburgh's " Plants of Coro- 

 mandel, " or when in 1807 the Council of Fort 

 William was informed that the directors were of 

 opinion that a statistical survey of the country 

 under the immediate authority of their presidency 

 " would be attended with much utility," and 

 recommended " proper steps to be taken for carry- 

 ing the same into execution." 



In this particular instance the Hon. Court 

 provided detailed instructions as to the nature of 

 the survey, and nominated the surveyor to be 

 employed. Its choice fell on Dr. F. Buchanan, 

 who had been attached as naturalist to an em- 

 bassy to Ava in 1795 and to a mission to Nepal 

 in 1802, had been employed by the Fort William 

 Council to make an economic survey of Chitta- 

 gong in 1798, and had been deputed in 1800 by 

 the Marquis Wellesley to carry out a statistical 

 survey of Mysore. 



So far as the forests of North-eastern India 

 were concerned, Buchanan's orders were to assess 

 their composition and the value of their products 

 beyond as well as within the company's boun- 

 daries. Among the results of his work was the 

 preparation in 1808 of a "Catalogue of Woods 

 peculiar to Goalpara," in Assam. This, a list of 

 ninety timber trees, was transmitted, with the 

 corresponding timber specimens, to the Hon. 

 Company's master-builder at Calcutta. The in- 

 formation as to these timbers was incorporated 

 in 1831 in a "List of Indian Woods," based by 

 NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



A. Aikin upon specimens transferred for the pur- 

 pose in 1828 by the Court of Directors to the 

 Society of Arts. Such was the value of 

 Buchanan's observations regarding the resources 

 of this single forest district that in 1837 his cata- 

 logue was reconstructed by M'Cosh and incor- 

 porated in the "Topography of Assam" as being 

 still " a fair statement of the timbers " of the 

 whole of that important province. 



The tradition established by the Hon. Court of 

 Directors of the East India Company has been 

 worthily sustained by the distinguished Secre- 

 taries of State for India in Council who since 

 1858 have fulfilled the duties formerly undertaken 

 by that court. Confining our attention to the field 

 of study first definitely opened up by Buchanan in 

 1808, we may note, among those works published 

 under the authority or with the approbation of 

 the India Office, the "Timber Trees " of Dr. E. G. 

 Balfour, the three editions of which were issued 

 in 1858, 1862, and 1870, and the "Manual of 

 Indian Timbers " of Mr. J. S. Gamble, first pub- 

 lished in 1881, and revised and re-edited in 1902. 



By 1870 the economic knowledge of the pro- 

 ducts of Indian forests had attained a standard 

 which emphasised the need for works calculated 

 to assist the officers who controlled these forests 

 in identifying the species which yield the timbers 

 concerned. Between 1869 and 1874 Col. R. H. 

 Beddome prepared a " Flora Sylvatica " for 

 Madras ; in 1874 appeared the admirable " Forest 

 Flora of North-west and Central India," begun by 

 Dr. J. L. Stewart and completed by Sir D. 

 Brandis ; in 1877 was issued a " Forest Flora of 

 British Burma," written by Mr. S. Kurz ; in 

 1878 Mr. J. S. Gamble published a " List of Trees, 

 etc.," for the Sikkim region of the Eastern Hima- 

 laya; and in 1894 Mr. W. A. Talbot did the 

 same service for the Presidency of Bombay, The 

 sustained labour which work of this essential 

 character entails was crowned by the publication 

 in 1906 of "Indian Trees," a comprehensive 

 treatise in which Sir D. Brandis has dealt with 

 the woody constituents of all the Indian forests. 

 This work, as essential an item in the equipment 

 of every Indian forest officer as is the " Manual of 

 Indian Timbers," belongs, like that of Mr. 

 Gamble, to the class of books which, in addition 

 to provoking admiration on account of their in- 

 trinsic merits, excite wonder as to how, before 

 they appeared, it was possible to get along with- 

 out them. 



The Indian forester is able to handle with some 

 confidence the timbers his forests provide. He 

 may with some assurance rely on the identity of 



