APPENDIX B. 



GENERAL KEY TO THE BURMESE TREES. 



As I shall not be able to submit my boolc on the Forest-Flora of Pegu so soon as I origin- 

 ally intended d-iing I feel sure that the foresters in British Barma will accept in the meantime 

 this general conspectus of the trees alone (from which have been omitted all other woody and 

 herbaceous plants.) I hope that the same may prove useful to them, and I do not doubt that 

 those of them who have mastered the characteristics of the various natural orders, will find 

 little difficulty, in determining the trees of their district. The species of some larger genera, 

 as Eugenia, Mcmecylon, Ficus, etc. are difficult to understand, and the study of them is of such 

 an intricate nature that even, qualified botanists would undertake the work with great diffi- 

 dence. If mistakes in the determination of such occur, no one can be blamed. In such cases 

 autopsy of correctly-named specimens is the only safe guide for obtaining a fair knowledge of 

 them. The analytical table of the families (chiefly taken from Bentham's writings) is provi- 

 sional only and necessarily not very reliable. Those who wish to study the natural orders of 

 the vegetable kingdom, will find the following works most useful. 



Lindley, Yegetable Kingdom. 



Le Mouat et Th. Decaisne, Tralte general de Botanique. Paris 1868, (of which a trans- 

 lation into English by Mrs. Hooker has passed the press.*) Others desirous of making them- 

 selves acquainted only with the natural orders of the Indian Flora, may use Oliver, First 

 book of Indian Botany. 



However, every one has to recollect the proverb .n(Y//a regiila sine exceptione and probably 

 nowhere do so many exceptions and doubtfully placed or abnormal genera occur as in our 

 botanical systems which necessarily must puzzle the beginner until he has mastered the 

 gi-eater bulk of the task before him. 



CONSPECTrS OF THE PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS 



OF THE 



VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



A. Spermophytes or Phanerogams. (Seed-bearing or flowering plants.) 

 Plants bearing more or less complete flowers and producing perfect seeds, in which an 



embryo rests. 



Class I. Dicotyledons or Exogens. Stem, when woody, consisting of pith, of one or 

 more concentric circles of fibrous tissue, and of bark on the outside. Embryo with 

 2 or rarely more cotyledons, the young stem in germination proceeding from 

 between the cotyledons or from a notch at its summit. Flowers often 4-5 or 6 

 merous. Leaves net-veined. By far the greatest number of Burmese trees belong to 

 this class. 

 Division 1. Angiosperms. Ovules enclosed in an ovary with a stigma. Seeds contain- 

 ed in a seed-vessel. Cotyledons usually 2 only. 

 Division 2. Gi/mnosperms. Ovules naked, without ovary or stigma. Seeds naked. 

 Cotyledons sometimes several. Here belong only conifers, like pines, Cycas {mun- 

 dein) and Gnetum (jut-noe.) 



Class II. Monocotyledons or Endogens. Stem, when woody, uniformly consisting of 

 bundles of fibres irregularly imbedded in cellular tissue with a firmly adherent bark 

 on the outside. Embryo with one undivided cotyledon, the young stem being deve- 

 loped from a sheath-like cavity on one side. Floral parts usually 3 merous, the 

 calyx and corolla, if present, usually almost conform in structure forming often a 

 6-parted perianth. Leaves usually (except in Scicamincce, Dioscoridece, Smilax and 

 some Aroidice) simply parallel-veined. Of Burmese trees belong here palms, screw- 

 pines, Dracaena and bamboo ; some people call also the plantain a tree. 



A General System of Botany, descriptive and analytial. Translated by Mrs. Hooker ; edited and arranged 

 by Dr. J. D. Hooker. Loudon: Longmans and Co., 1873. 



