252 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



botanists' reports, millions of acres have been made 

 desert, and more are being made desert annually, 

 through the destruction of the indigenous forests ; in 

 Demerara the useful timber trees have all been re- 

 moved from accessible regions, and no care and 

 thought given to planting others ; from Trinidad we 

 have the same story ; in New Zealand there is not 

 now a good Kundi pine to be found near the coast ; 

 and I believe that the annals of almost every English 

 Colony would repeat the tale of wilful wanton waste 

 and improvidence. 



" On the other hand, in France, Prussia, Switzer- 

 land, Austria, and Russia, the forests and waste lands 

 are the subjects of devoted attention on the part of 

 the Government, and Colleges, provided with a com- 

 plete staff of accomplished professors, train youths 

 of good birth and education to the duties of State 

 foresters. Nor in the case of France is this law con- 

 fined to the mother country. The Algerian forests 

 are worked with scrupulous solicitude ; and the collec- 

 tions of vegetable produce from the French Colonies 

 and New Caledonia, &c., contain specimens which, 

 though not falling technically under class '&'j, abound 

 in evidence of the forest products being all diligently 

 explored." 



Bentham, in his ' Desiderata from Botanical Collec- 

 tors in Western Tropical Africa,' to be found at the 

 beginning of Hooker's 'Niger Flora,' says on the 

 subject : — 



