86 D. Brandis — EooJiihition of Indian Woods. [Maech, 



" I should consider the serial temperature observations my particular 

 work. What a chance we have in the Indian Ocean to work out the 

 question o£ Ocean circulation ; being closed to the north it offers excep- 

 tional advantages for the study of this subject, and in it I take the greatest 

 interest. 



" I think the views of the Society on the method of carrying on these 

 investigations should be submitted to Government and orders passed on 

 them." 



The Seceetart announced that Dr. Eajendralala Mitra had prepared 

 an Index to the Sanscrit works named in Rev. S. Beale's Buddhist Tripi- 

 taka, and that copies were available for distribution to Members. 



Dr. Beandis exhibited a series of specimens of timbers from different 

 provinces of India, and explained that large collections had been made for 

 the Paris Exhibition, which had been despatched some time ago, and that 

 from the material which had been brought together for that purpose, a 

 number of sets of specimens had been prepared for institutions in England, 

 in America, on the Continent of Europe and in India. 



He drew attention to the great variety of trees and shrubs found in 

 India, the number of which he estimated at 4,000 species, one-half of which 

 are trees. Assuming the number of Phanerogamous plants in India to be 

 12,000, this would give 83|^ per cent, of woody to Phanerogamous plants. 

 In Great Britain the indigenous trees and shrubs number 163, on a total of 

 phanerogamous plants of 1784, or 9 per cent. In the northern part of the 

 United States the woody plants form 16 and in Japan 25 per cent, of the 

 entire phanerogamous vegetation. In purely tropical countries, the pro- 

 portion of woody among phanerogamous plants varies from 50 to 70 per 

 cent. 



One half of India is outside the tropics, a large area on the Himalaya 

 belongs to the temperate zone, and besides this there are extensive forests 

 which consist of one or a few species of gregarious trees ; for instance 

 the forests of Sal (Shorea rohusta), the extensive and nearly useless forests 

 of Sali {Bosioellia thurifera) on the trap hills of the Satpura range, 

 the forests of Anjun {Sardivichia hinatd) which are common on certain 

 classes of soil in many parts of the Dekkan and Central India, the Babool 

 {Acacia arahica) forests of Sind and the Dekkan, the Prosopis forests on the 

 high ground between the Punjab rivers, and the Dipterocarpus forests of 

 Burma. All these gregarious forests contribute to reduce the proportion 

 of species among trees and shrubs in the tropical and sub-tropical parts of 

 India, 



