PREFACE. 



He should for example possess a good knowledge of the charac- 

 ters most commonly employed in plant descriptions and thus be 

 able to identify plants from their written descriptions and to 

 use a Flora with advantage. He should also have an eye for 

 those characters of bark, habit, etc., which enable one to recog- 

 nise on sight different species in the forest at different times 

 of year. 



Such characters are dealt with in Part I of the Manual. 

 Those for whom this book is primarily intended have very little 

 time for microscopic work both during their course of training 

 and thereafter. Anatomy therefore is very briefly dealt with 

 in Part II and only so far as has been considered necessary for 

 a fairly clear idea of the main facts of Physiology and Pathology 

 as given in Parts III and V. 



4. In accordance with the in- 

 structions which were received regarding the preparation of 

 this Manual systematic botany is treated very shortly in Part IV. 

 An attempt has there been made to explain the principles of 

 classification, and while avoiding unnecessary detail to give a 

 fair idea of the chief characters and general appearance of the 

 plants contained in the main divisions of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom, as until a student is able to place any plant, accord- 

 ing to the aggregate of its characters, into at all events its main 

 group with fair accuracy he cannot be considered competent to 

 use a special Flora which only deals in detail with one- or more 

 minor groups. The detailed classification of Dicotyledons and 

 Monocotyledons has not been dealt with but the students at 

 the Forest College are required to fully utilise every opportunity 

 they may have of collecting, examining and endeavouring to 

 classify the plants met with on their tours a task in which they 

 are assisted by Kanjilal's most useful Forest Flora of the School 

 Circle which contains full descriptions of most of the important 

 forest species likely to be found, and also by a short course of 

 lectures delivered during the students' tours, giving the charac- 

 ters of the most important cohorts and natural orders of 

 together with the names of the chief plants of 



