37* THE TIMBER TREES AND USEFUL PLANTS 
tion of the agricultural public at the present time ; nor is its importance 
confined to them, as the forlorn and ruinous architectural condition of 
many a provincial town and village proves. And besides their present 
experience as to inferior and unhealthy houses, the manufacture of 
artificial stone would afford an immense amount of profitable employ- 
ment, thereby creating a new stimulus to the other branches of useful 
industry. In an improvement where the welfare of so many are 
interested, the benefit gained extends to all classes of the community. 
THE TIMBER TREES AND USEFUL PLANTS OF THE 
BIJNOUR FOREST, HIMALAYAS. 
BY DR. J. L. STEWART, CIVIL SURGEON. 
In proceeding to consider the individual trees and other plants yielding 
timber and minor products in the Bijnour forest, the preferable arrange- 
ment of them has been a subject of some perplexity. A botanical 
arrangement would be too technical and presents no compensating ad- 
vantages, while on the other hand, an alphabetical catalogue of the 
native names, though seemingly simple, has great inconveniences, 
chiefly owing to the varying methods of spelling native words, and the 
fact that in some cases, several native names are given to the same tree 
within a few miles. I know of no circumstance against which, as throw- 
ing difficulties in the way of our identifying the products of Indian 
plants and systematizing our knowledge of their properties, botanical 
writers, from Buchanan and Hamilton to Hooker, have inveighed so 
strongly, at the tendency of many people to hold fast and swear by 
native nomenclature with its variations and uncertainties. 
Any arrangement founded on the nature and uses of the various pro- 
ducts seems beset with difficulties and inconveniences, and although I 
can hardly flatter myself that I have hit the juste milieu by arranging 
the botanical names in an alphabetical catalogue, followed by the re- 
spective native names, yet this method appears to me to labour under 
fewer disad vantages than any of the others. 
I have included in the following list every plant, large and small, 
known to me in this forest, as yielding timber or any other useful pro- 
duct whether for home consumption or export, as well as one or two 
useful trees, &c, which are doubtfully indigenous in it, and a very few 
plants which from their striking appearance or connection with others 
which are useful, seem to deserve a place here. 
The native names are spelt from pronunciation, as nearly as may be 
according to the system used by Shakespeare, so as to ensure some de- 
gree of uniformity, the ordinary way of spelling being added in cases 
