22 FIRST REPORT ON FOREST OPERATIONS 



prove their minds, and has directed the assistants to teach the 

 overseers, as medical officers are enjoined to train their subordi- 

 nates. By adopting a system of weekly or occasional exami- 

 nations, it is to be hoped that a class of foresters superior to the 

 present may be obtained. 



43. System of Correspondence. — Where overseers are located, 

 or forest operations carried on, orders are given through the 

 assistant-conservator in whose range the overseer is situated ; 

 but in any case, when forest management appears to affect the 

 revenue or cultivation of the district, I immediately avail myself 

 of the advice and counsel of the collector ; and throughout I have 

 desired to be in the position of his adviser, and not an executive 

 trenching upon his authority. 



44. Manual of Accounts. — A " Manual of Accounts" for the em- 

 ployes in this department, compiled by J. T. Maclagan, Esq., 

 under instructions of Government, including simple forms of 

 accounts to be used, and printed circulars for the guidance of 

 overseers, &c, was submitted to government on the 6th ultimo. 

 At this early stage of forest correspondence, this manual must 

 necessarily be imperfect ; but being clear and concise, I believe 

 that it will be of great use in the preparation of contracts and 

 simplifying accounts. 



45. Proposed Herbarium of Reference. — Having received from 

 the royal gardens of Kew a valuable set of named Indian plants, 

 being duplicates issued after the publication of the " Flora 

 Indica" of Hooker and Thomson, I intend to arrange these 

 materials in a consultable herbarium at the Presidency. It was 

 indeed upon these conditions that I received the specimens. 

 Such a collection is a great desideratum in the present day, 

 when men of science frequently visit our capital, and we have 

 not a single specimen of the collections of Eoxburgh or "Wight 

 to show, but can only refer to their description. I shall not ask 

 Government for any pecuniary assistance except to supply paper, 

 the cases, and hereafter perhaps some manual assistance. 



46. Manual of Indian Botany. — I have the honour to enclose 

 a specimen of the "Manual of Indian Botany," now being prepared 

 in compliance with the wishes of the Honourable Court of Di- 

 rectors. The small amount of time which I can spare from other 



