xiv INTRODUCTION. 
Colonel Beddome's “Flora Sylvatiea of the Madras Presidency and Ceylon,” Mr. 
S. Kurz’s “Preliminary Forest Report of Реса,“ the “ Manual of Indian Timbers,” 
the “Special Catalogue of the exhibits of the Government of India and private 
exhibitors at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886," and other similar catalogues, 
the introductions to the monographs of Ruprecht and Munro, and various papers in 
the “Indian Forester," the Proceedings of the Agri-Horticultural Societies, and other 
Indian publications, afford information of value and importance. For those who 
have lived for some time in India, it is difficult to imagine how the country would 
get on without bamboos, for from bamboo—at any rate in all but the very driest 
regions to which it would be too far to carry them  profitably—are made the 
houses, the furniture, the carts, the fittings of boats, the fences, the domestic utensils, 
ihe weapons: in short, almost all the objects of daily use, and the necessaries of daily 
life. Bamboos are also used as food, both by the people (grain and young shoots) 
and by their cattle (the leaves); as a material for making paper; as a means to 
procure fire; and in plantation, as ornaments to the villages and gardens. 
The propagation of bamboos is simple enough: it is best done by seed, but 
ean be done by taking voot-offsets, though in this case there is always a danger 
of the resulting clumps flowering when the parent clump flowers (we have seen 
this clearly in recent plantations at the base of the Saharanpur Siwaliks, North-Western 
Provinces), also by /ayers from branches bent to the ground and pegged down, and 
lastly by cuttings, though these latter are by no means easy to get to strike. 
The management of bamboo forest is easy if the clumps have been attended to 
from the beginning, ай is, if dry culms have been regularly removed, if cutting at or 
near ground level has alone been permitted, and if mature culms have been regularly 
thinned out yearly, so as to leave ample space for the development of new ones: 
but this state of things rarely exists in the natural forests, and especially in those 
їп which cutting is given over to contractors or allowed on permit. Consequently, 
to bring such forests into a state fit to give the best yield in material and revenue, 
the interference of the owner is necessary, and often some considerable capital 
expenditure. On this subject “The exploitation of bamboo forest, Ind. Forester 
XVII, 186,” may be consulted; the article refers to Northern India and chiefly to 
the common Dendrocalamus strictus, but the recommendations will also apply to most 
other useful kinds. 
In Burma, the majority of teak forests are composed of a main crop of bamboos, 
above the canopy of which appear the crowns of trees and especially teak, and it 
is only when a year of bamboo-seeding takes place that suppressed young teak can 
get a start or teak seedlings appear. So that it is necessary for forest officers to 
watch and see when indications of flowering are given, and be ready, after clearing 
off the dry crop of bamboos by fire, to restock as much as possible of the area, 
either by allowing natural teak seedlings to come on, or by sowing or planting 
artificially. The species which are in this way chiefly associated with teak are the 
^ Myinwa” (Dendrocalamus strictus), .*'Tinwa" (Cephalostachyum pergracile), and 
“ Kyathaungwa” (Bambusa polymorpha).: | | fee 
