xii INTRODUCTION 



flowers, fr. for fruit, Haz. for Hazara, Bash, for Bashahr, Kun. for Kunawar, 

 OP. for Central Provinces, Ear. for Karen, will be readily understood. 



Vernacular names of species, if sifted with, care, are valuable whatever may- 

 be said to the contrary, and I have endeavoured to select those which seemed 

 to me most likely to be useful. Apart from the names recorded in my old 

 Forest Flora, and those collected by myself after 1874, those recorded in Kurz's 

 Forest Flora of Burma, in Beddome's Flora Sylvatica, in Gamble's second 

 edition of Indian Timbers and in his other publications, in Talbot's List of 

 Trees and Shrubs of the Bombay Presidency, in the excellent lists of Burmese 

 names by the late Mr. Corbett, I have received much help in this respect 

 through the kindness of local forest officers and others. From Madras I have 

 received a printed list, giving the names of trees and shrubs in the 5 principal 

 languages of that Presidency. Similar lists, some in manuscript, others in 

 print, I have received from many districts or forest circles in other parts of 

 India. I hope that the selection which these abundant materials have 

 enabled me to make will prove useful, but I know that the spelling of these 

 names will be found to be the weakest point of the whole book. In the case 

 of Eng, Dipterocarpus tuberculatus, I have adhered to the old spelling, as 

 the name has, through the publications of Kurz and others, become familiar 

 to Botanists outside India. -When the local Forest Floras of the future come 

 to be prepared for the different forest circles or provinces, the spelling of 

 the vernacular names in the different languages will doubtless receive due 

 attention. In the case of languages spoken in limited areas, or otherwise 

 less important for the forester, such as Lepcha, Sontal, Kol, Gond, Bhil, 

 Shan. Chin, Karen, I have only given the names of a few common and 

 important trees. 



The materials, upon the examination of which the description of genera and 

 species in this book are based, have been as follows. First : The magnificent 

 and well-arranged collections in the Herbarium and Museums, with the 

 library and the living specimens cultivated in the houses or the grounds, of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. I value highly the privilege of having 

 been permitted the free use of these matchless treasures. I have also 

 consulted, whenever it seemed necessary, the specimens of Wallich's Her- 

 barium at the Linnean Society, as well as the collections preserved in the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington. I cannot sufficiently express 

 my gratitude for the assistance I have received in this work from the Director 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, from all members of his staff, as well as from 

 the officers of the Natural History Museum and the Linnean Society. 



Second : The collections made by me in the different provinces of India 

 from 1856 to 1883. These collections might have been exceedingly valuable, 

 for there are few important forest districts in British territory which I have not 

 visited, often repeatedly at different seasons of the year. Collecting, however, 

 was not my business. The object of my being appointed in January 1856 by 

 Lord Dalhousie to the charge of the Pegu forests was purely practical. My 

 duty in Burma was to place the management of the Teak forests upon a safe 

 footing, so as to ensure the maintenance and gradual improvement of the 

 valuable growing stock, while utilizing timber not exceeding the amount 

 annually produced in the forests. The difficulties with which I had to 

 contend were great, and the opposition against methodical forest management 

 was powerful. This is not the place to give an account of rny work in India ; 

 it must suffice to say that, unless I had had in Burma the stead}' support of the 

 late Sir Arthur Phayre, and at a later date, after I had been summoned 

 to Calcutta to assist the Government of India in organizing forest business in 

 the other provinces, the protection and guidance of Colonel (now Sir Richard ) 

 Strachey, there would perhaps be no Forest Administration in India, and 

 there would be no need for the present book. My work during the 28 

 years of my Indian service has never left me leisure for collecting 

 systematically, or for working out scientific problems. 



