( 96 ) 



The forester should select from a tree or shrub leafy branches bearing either flowers or 

 fruit, or both, and have them cut to such sizes as to fit into the drying piiper with which he 

 is supplied. If the leaves of such a bough, as for example those of teak, are too large, they 

 sliould be folded in according to his own taste within the sheet of paper, or some of them 

 might be put Peparately between another sheet of paper. 



The usual way is to have a single folded sheet, in which the branch as it comes from the 

 tree should be laid fiat between the fold. These single sheets with the plants in them should 

 be put between two separate layers of two or three (or more if the plant is very sappy) empty 

 sheets of blotting paper, one fitting into the other : a layer of such empty paper alternating 

 with a single folded sheet containing the plants. 



"When this is done the bundle of plants and papers should be put between two wooden 

 boards cut to size, and less than half an inch in thickness, and bound together as tightly as 

 possible by means of leather straps. Such a pile should never be higher than 1 to 1 ^ feet ; 

 and if the plants are very succulent, a small number should be pressed together in a separate 

 bundle. 



Every other day (or in the rainy season every day) the single sheets and also the layers 

 should be replaced by other dry ones, and this should be done in the same way as if the 

 plants had just come in fresh. The changing of the paper should be continued until the 

 plants have become perfectly dry. The moist paper taken out from the bundle may be spread 

 out and dried in the sun or (if rainy weather prevails) over fires. 



When no blotting paper, wooden boards or straps are at hand, old paper of any sort, 

 especially if of a coarse stout nature, may be used with two pieces of paste-board fastened 

 with strings and cords, or a large stone might be put upon the bundle at night, which will 

 serve the same purpose more or less. 



Those plants that are perfectly dry should be taken out from the pile, and placed be- 

 tween single sheets and the current No., native name if any, locality and date should be 

 added on a label attached to, or lying beside, the branch. After being thus carefully ticket- 

 ed, they may be made up into bundles placed between two paste-boards and packed in the 

 usual way in strong paper or, to avoid their being spoilt by wet during transit, they might 

 be packed in wax-cloth or tarpaulin and forwarded to head quarters. 



The further process of mounting, etc., and also the naming of the specimens, might best 

 be carried out in the Botanical garden, Calcutta. 



IV. Conclusion. 



In the above pages I have probably exceeded my instructions and touched upon prac- 

 tical subjects which are not directly connected with my duty. But this has not been done 

 with any desire on my part to find fault, or to criticise existing defects real or supposed. I 

 have only attempted to deduce from facts in nature, such simple conclusions as 1 thought 

 might be useful to foresters, and more especially to those who may give to the physiology of 

 plants a part of their time and attention.* Burmah is in this respect an especially instructive 

 field, and much of the richness of its Flora is to be attributed to the variety of soil it poss- 

 esses. The monotonous alluvial plains, now for a great part covered by coarse grasses and 

 comparatively valueless jungles, also open a wide field for agricultural enterprise, requiring 

 nothing but active hands to disclose the hidden treasures of the soil. Thousands of natives 

 starve in overcrowded India, or work under circumstances bordering on slavery, and hundreds 

 emigrate to foreign countries or to plantations, while under a well organized system of colo- 

 nization, they might become independent cultivators in Burmah, where they would probably 

 live as happy as the Mugh colonists in Arracan, were it not for religious and caste prejudices. 

 But instead of active cultivators wandering into Pegu, the laud becomes overrun more and 

 more with unscrupulous native traders of all sorts, and of servants, who are often nothing 

 but men rejected from regiments, and whose dealings can tend neither to the social nor the 

 moral improvement of the frolicsome but rather idle Burmans. Whatever may be the future 

 prospects of Burmah, we may confidently expect that, as population increases, the province 

 will become one of the richest under the Government of India. 



In concluding I may now be allowed to express my thanks to all in Pegu who have faci- 

 litated my labours in their official or private capacity, and more particularly to Dr. Brandis, 

 Inspector General of Forests, in whose company I travelled for a few months in Pegu, and 

 from whose writings, and knowledge of the country, I have derived much valuable informa- 

 tion. Equally grateful am I to Capt. W. J. Seaton, Conservator of Forests in Burma, who 

 assisted mo on every possible occasion, and to all other forest officers whom I had the plea- 



* Wliile preparing these feheets a prospectus of " Forstlicbe Flora von Dcutschland u. Oestreich" by Dr. 

 M. Willkom reached nie. In this Dr. Willkoin's view, witli regard to the educational requirements of a forester, 

 admirably coincides witli my own when he says that the centre of gravity in forest matters rests in the phytogeo- 

 graphical relations and physiology of woody plants. 



