September 2, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



359 



period. Apart from this temporary decrease, the annual yield 

 of the forests in timber has risen steadily, and, as already 

 stated, the net revenue has increased largely, and this was 

 mainly due to the increased quantity, and the improved quality 

 of the timber brought from the forests and to the rise in the 

 selling rates of Teak timber. 



At the outset too favorable a view was taken of the rate of 

 growth of the Teak-tree, hence the large mean annual gird- 

 lings of the first period. In 1868 we erred in the opposite 

 direction, hence the small number girdled during the second 

 period. The total number of trees girdled during the thirty- 

 eight years in question was, as already stated, 660,000, or at 

 the rate of 17,400 a year. To the present time special 

 working plans have been prepared for eleven forest dis- 

 tricts in the Iraauddi and two in the Sitang valley, aggregating 

 865,260 acres. For this area (thirteen districts) the number of 

 trees to be girdled annually has been fixed by these working 

 plans at 13,680, or fifteen trees on 1,000 acres. The aggregate 

 area of reserved forests in lower Burma in 1894 amounted to 

 four million acres. A portion of this area has been reserved 

 for the sake of other valuable trees, chiefly Acacia Catechu. 

 The annual yield of the Teak localities, when special working 

 plans shall have been prepared for all, may safely be estimated 

 at 40,000 trees a year. It is most satisfactory that, although 

 in 1856 much too rapid a rate of growth was assumed, 

 nevertheless the girdlings during the first period were consid- 

 erably below what may be regarded as the probable normal 

 yield of these forests. It is, however, possible that the full 

 number stated in the returns — upon which the figures here 

 given are based — was not girdled. In thosedistricts where the 

 work was carried on in 1S57 and 1858 no competent officers 

 were available to superintend the work. 



The aggregate net revenue which these forests have pro- 

 duced during the thirty-eight years in question has amounted 

 to 27,240,000 rupees. During the first two periods, until 1879, 

 the rupee was worth on an average two shillings, but, owing 

 to the depreciation of silver, its value has since diminished 

 steadily, until during the five years of the last period it averaged 

 fourteen pence. Expressed in gold, the aggregate net revenue 

 from these forests during this period of thirty-eight years has 

 amounted to ,£2,093,000. During the five years ending with 

 1894 the mean annual surplus revenue has amounted to 

 ,£109,080, or $545,400. On an area of four million acres this 

 amounts to sixpence an acre, a rent with which no forest pro- 

 prietor in the United States would be satisfied. But it must 

 be remembered that Teak and Acacia catechu, at present prac- 

 tically the only marketable trees, form less than one-tenth part 

 of the whole growing stock, and, what is more important, that 

 all the easily accessible portions of the forest had previously 

 been cleared out, and that a large portion of the annual expen- 

 diture is devoted to the improvement of the forests by plant- 

 ing and otherwise. 



The disastrous consequences which in i860 the merchants 

 of Rangoon predicted would inevitably follow if the system 

 initiated in 1856 were persevered in, have not taken place; the 

 use of iron has increased all over the world, and yet Teak tim- 

 ber is not a drug in the market ; its price has risen steadily. It 

 has chiefly been the wonderful development of the British 

 Indian Empire since that time which has thus increased the 

 demand for Teak timber. The millions inhabiting that empire 

 are prosperous, teak is the best timber in a tropical climate, 

 hence the export of this article from Burma to other parts of 

 the Indian Empire has increased largely. A portion only, 

 however, of this timber is the produce of the forests in lower 

 Burma. Those of upper Burma and of that portion of Siam 

 which is situated within the catchment area of the Salween 

 River also yield large quantities. At the commencement of 

 the period of thirty-eight years here adverted to, the quantity 

 exported annually from Rangoon and Moulmein amounted to 

 86,000 tons. During the five years ending 1 893-4 it has averaged 

 182,000 tons. This shows the increase in the demand for Teak 

 timber during that period. 



Bonn, Germany. 



Dietrich Brandt's. 



Recent Publications. 



Familiar Trees and their Leaves. Described and illus- 

 trated by F. Schuyler Mathews. New York : D. Appleton 

 &Co. 



This book, with its attractive cover and well-printed 

 pages and illustrations, is another effort in a popular style 

 to help those who have but little botanical knowledge to 

 identify the different trees encountered by the roadside or 

 in the forest. In a brief introduction Professor Bailey says : 



"There are two ways of knowing trees : one is the way of 

 human feeling and sympathy through which a tree be- 

 comes a part of one's self as the sunshine does and is 

 identified with every hallowed experience. Another way 

 is the botanical or analytical way which scrutinizes every 

 detail, is essential to truth but not to feeling, and is so 

 likely to restrict and dwarf the vision and the sympathies 

 as to make the tree but a laboratory filled with curiously 

 fashioned mechanism." All this may be true, but we never 

 chanced to meet with a man whose appreciation of the 

 beauty or poetic charm of a tree was dulled because he 

 knew so much about it. We have never yet been 

 acquainted with an astronomer whose scientific attain- 

 ments prevented him from feeling the sublimity of the 

 starry heavens, nor with a geologist to whom the land- 

 scape was less lovely because he was familiar with the 

 history of its rocks and knew the laws of the great forces 

 which had moulded its surfaces. It is certainly true, how- 

 ever, that many persons who would like to know some- 

 thing about trees have neither the time nor the inclination 

 to take up the systematic study of botany ; and yet a book 

 whose direct purpose is to help beginners to distinguish 

 one tree from another by means of their leaves will be of 

 little use unless it describes these leaves accurately and 

 compares them so as to bring out their resemblances and 

 differences. If this is done correctly it is science, and true 

 descriptive science as far as it goes. There can be no 

 question as to the usefulness of a book which leads the 

 beginner to examine and compare the leaves and barks 

 and fruits of trees for the purpose of identifying them, for 

 these features can be seen at almost any time of the year, 

 and unless one knows them familiarly and thoroughly he 

 never can become acquainted with the different species. 

 If trees are taken up as part of a course of botanical study, 

 with shrubs, herbs, grasses, etc., their flowers or repro- 

 ductive organs are likely to be the leading characters inves- 

 tigated. These are often minute, hard to secure, and 

 they usually remain but a few days. It is, therefore, much 

 more natural for one who simply wishes to learn how to 

 recognize trees to use a manual in which the leaves are the 

 features mainly relied on for determining them. To serve 

 this purpose Professor Apgar has already prepared an ad- 

 mirable little manual, entitled The Trees of the Northern 

 United States, and by the help of a key and drawings of the 

 leaves it is quite easy for any one to make sure of the name 

 of any tree of which he has secured a specimen branch. 

 This book of Mr. Mathews is a good one, too, because in 

 the main the drawings are accurate and the statements are 

 clear and true, which means that it is good botany. It 

 would have been more helpful if it had been more sys- 

 tematic — that is, more scientific. In preparing a manual 

 to enable students to distinguish the leaf of a Willow from 

 the leaf of an Oak or any other tree, there can be no better 

 way than to make a drawing of a leaf which is as nearly 

 typical as may be, and then give a description in the old- 

 fashioned way. This Mr. Mathews has done fairly well. 



The drawings would have been more useful if the scale 

 as compared with the natural size of the leaf had been 

 given in each instance. They are usually spirited and 

 accurate, but since Mr. Mathews tells us that he draws any 

 leaf which he may come across, whether typical or not, he 

 frequently draws those like the Crab-apple, on page 60, 

 which are not of the usual form. The serrate, heart- 

 shaped leaves of our Lindens are distinctly oblique at the 

 base, but this last character is not shown at all, while the 

 unlobed form of the Mulberry-leaf shows an inequality which 

 it does not have. The strong, curved, parallel ribs are strik- 

 ing characteristics of all our Dogwoods, which the draw- 

 ings fail to emphasize. Perhaps Butternut-leaves with nine 

 leaflets can be found, but they almost never have so few, 

 and the double buds of these trees are usually so con- 

 spicuous that when the twig on which the leaf appears is 

 added this character might well have been introduced. 

 We have also observed occasional inaccuracies in the de- 

 scriptions and a few obscure and erroneous statements, but 



