m 
tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June 1, 1900. 
boos, as you may possibly be aware, a very larpe 
amount of Forest revenue is annually derived. The 
sales of Bamboos for the year 189tj-97 amounted to no 
less than 110 millions of stems. A great number of 
the species of bamboos have the ciuions habit of 
flowering gregarioQsly at remote intervals of thirty 
or forty yearp, and the fiovering is followed by 
death. The absence from the forests for years in 
succossion of flowers of a number of the species, 
and the similarity of many of them in leaves, had 
hitherto made members of the group most difficulty 
of identification. Mr. Gamble had devoted himself 
to their study for many years. He had carefully 
examined all the previously collected materials stored 
in the Herbaria at Kew, the British Museum, Calcutta, 
and elsewbeie; and large special collections had been 
made for him by Mr. Gustav Maun and other offi- 
cers of Government. Moreover, he had General 
Munro's great paper in the 'Linnean Transactions' 
as a basis. Mr. Gamble s work was undertaken with 
the full approval of Sir -Joseph Hooker, who indeed 
accepted Mr. Gamble's account of the bamboos for 
his ' Flora of British India.' Mr. Gamble's mono- 
graph is illustrated by a life-sized drawing of each 
species, with analyses of the flowers on a large scale. 
When completed, the book was published as one of 
the volumes of the ' Annals of the Calcutta Botanic 
Girden.' In consideration of the supposed great im- 
portance of the book to the forester, and in the 
belief that the copies would be eageilv taken by tlje 
Forest Department, an extra hundred copies were 
printed, and these hundred copies were put into 
Btout canvas binding suitable for camp use. These 
copies, or as many of them as he cared to take, 
were offered to the Head of the Forest Department 
in India at the reduced price of fifteen rupees per 
copy. The result was an official refusal to buy a 
Bingle one, although the purchase of the whole hun- 
dred (which was not asked for) would have cost only 
fifteen hundred rupees -a sum which would have 
reduced the revenue of the year by about one twelve- 
thousandth part I An appeal against this ruling having 
been made to a still higher authority, a modified 
order was subsequently issued permitted such Forest 
cfflcers as desired to possess the book to buy copies 
and charge the coat in their office expenditurs. I 
may state that the book was not a private venture. 
It was produced at tne expense of the Government 
of Bengal. 
It is not because I like to play the censor that 
I have rt'ade these remarks about the Forest Depart- 
ment. Having myself served in it from lt69 to 1871, 
I can speak from my own expeiience as to the value, 
from the utilitarian point of view, of a knowledge 
of the names, affinities, and properties of the trees, 
shrubs, and herbs which compose an Indian jungle, 
and of a knowledge of these as individual members 
of the vegetable kmgdom rather than as masses of 
tissue to be studied through a microscope. The ap- 
pointment which I held in India for twenty-six years 
after leaving the Forest Department gave me full 
opportunity of getting into touch with all who in- 
terest themselves in a knowledge of plants, and of 
discovering how few of these at the present day are 
Forest officers. The majority of the latter, if they 
love their trees, are content to do so without knowing 
their names or relationships 1 There are, of course, 
splendid exceptions who know as well as love. The 
general decadence of the teaching of Systematic 
Botany in England during the past twenty years is, 
perhapS) to some extent, the cause of the low esti- 
mation in which the science is held by the authorities 
of the Indian Forest Department. Twenty-five years 
ago Systematic and Morphological Botany, no doubt 
had too great prominence given to them in the 
teaching at universities and colleges of this country, 
and the other branches of Botanical science were too 
much neglected, although I do not think they were 
despiBcd. Now it appears to me that Systematic Botany 
Ih too mucli neglected. I hope it is not also despised ! 
Few of the systematists who survive in England are now 
found attached to the uiiiverBities. They are 
mostly clustered round the two great Herbaria in 
London ; and such of them as have to look to Sys- 
tematic Botany for the means of livelihood are not 
in the receipt of salaries such as one might reason- 
ably expect iu one of the richest countries in the 
world ! 
NOTES OF A CAMP ON THE PEKTAR 
DAM, TRAVANCORE. 
SPORT WITH BISON &C. 
G!h April.— Coxint Teleki and self let Stasbrook 
Estate at 1-30 pm.; arrived at Carradygoodie Estate 
at 3 30 p.m.; stayed the night with STr Leahy. 
7tli .4/')-'? — Lpft at C bO a.m. ; reached Thakady', the 
head of the I'eriar diim, at 6-30 a.m ; got on the steam 
Unm-h at II a.m., and steamed down to the dam 
itself, which we reached at 1 p.m. The dam is still 
full of stiindiiig timber; it coVt<rs 16 tqiare miles of 
water. We put up at a bui.galow kept for use by 
the Engineers, aniJ found our servants and stores 
all safely housed. The launch then returned, leav- 
ii g a jolly boat and a canoe for our use. We started 
out at 3 p.m. und rowed some 2 miles, landed, and 
after some walking I saw a herd of 14 Bison with 
a very tine bull, i made the stalk ahead of the Count 
and got wiihin ."iO yards of them and waited for 
Count Teleki to come up; by the time he arrived 
they were about 200 yards away. He fired at the 
bull with his 577, bin him, but he got off into thick 
Eta jangle, and getting dark we had to give him up 
but exptct to find him dead later on. Got back to 
camp at 7-15 p m. 
8th April. — The Count had a blistered foot, so I 
started alone at 5-30 a.m. below the dam down the 
river bed and went in the dirf ciion of Placard Estate. 
About 7 a.m. I came suddenly on a large solitary 
bull in long grass about 25 pases off. I fired with 
the 10 bore and hit the base of the horn ; he then 
charged but I was slightly above him, and had no 
difficulty in bringing him down at close quarters. 
He proved a splendid beast, and having a measur- 
ing tape with me I took the following measurements : — 
Height from foot to wither in straight line 76 inches ; 
spread of horns 41 inches ; betweeu tips 27 inches; 
girth of horn at base 22 inches ; neck from 18 inches 
below ear 9o inches; length from nose to rump 11 
loot 7 inches. After lunch I saw a herd of 5 Bison, 
and after a difficult stalk came up to them in long 
grass, but unfortunately came right on » young cow 
who gave the alarm, and I could not get a shot at 
the bull ; so returned to Bungalow about 6 p.m. pretty 
well tired out. 
nth April. — The Count and myself got up at 4 a.m. 
and left at 5 a m. in the jolly boat and rowed up 
the right arm of the dam under the guidance of a 
"Mannam" villager called "Lord George." 
We then climbed and walked about 2 miles when I 
saw with my glasses a solitary bull. The Count 
got within aboft 200 yards and fired with his 577, 
wounding him ; he then got into a small niece of 
Eta jungle; I ran to far end to stop him with my 
Estate Kangany named Assurwathen, and the bull 
came very close to us and snorted, but I could not 
see to fire. Mr. Assurwathen threw away my small 
rifle and threw himself into the Eta tearing off the 
lobe of his year. He crawled out and swore the 
bull had put his horn through it. Meanwhile the 
bull had tried to get back at other end of the Eta 
junale, where Count Teleki was waiting, and he 
finished him off at 100 yards. This bull measured 
37 inch, spread, 21 inch between tips, and 17 inch 
girth of horn at base. We tried on until 4 30, when 
a heavy thunder-storm came on, so we returned tc 
camp very wet at about 6-45 p.m. 
10th. — 'I?he Count's foot was bad again, bo I started 
by myself at 5 a.m., landed at 5-45 walked until 8, 
when I saw a herd of Bison, but they got our wind 
and went into jungle, did a good deal of walking, 
hut saw nothing else. Ketutnecl at 7 p.m. 
