FLORA OF THE SUNDRIBUNS. 
233 
became apparent when Mr. Heinig was posted to the Sundribuns as 
Deputy Conservator of Forests ten years later. His duties included the 
preparation of a working-plan of the Sundribun Forest Reserves ; in 
connection with this duty Heinig sent collections of the important 
Sundribun species to the Calcutta Herbarium for identification by 
Sir G. King and by the writer, then Curator of the Herbarium. These 
collections, though formed with a special and technical object, proved 
so interesting from the scientific point of view that we begged Heinig 
to continue his investigations. With this request Heinig complied, 
and to his collections, carefully made during four or five seasons from 
1891 to 1894, is largely due the fact that our knowledge of the Sun- 
dribun flora is now perhaps as complete as our knowledge of the 
Bengal rice-plain itself. During one of Heinig's tours he was accom- 
panied by Mr. G. A. Gammie,* whose enthusiasm as a collector is 
well-known. 
Heinig’ s interest in the Flora of the Sundribun forests led to his 
preparing an account of the topography of the Sundribuns and a sketch 
of the vegetation of their forests ; these were incorporated in the 
working-plan alluded to above. To this Heinig added, as an appendix, 
based partly on the specimens of his earlier collections, depending 
partly on collation, a List of the Trees, Shrubs and Large Climbers ” 
of the Reserved and the Protected Sundribun Forests. The topo- 
graphical and descriptive portions of Heinig's account have been 
largely drawn upon Jn the chapters that follow. The list appended 
to the working-plan, though important as a contribution to applied 
Botany, is less valuable from a scientific point of view. Having regard 
to the purpose of his report as a whole, Heinig^s attention was of 
necessity chiefly given to such species as are of importance from the 
Forest Officer's stand-point. Its greatest drawback is, however, its 
inaccessibility. Heinig has also published an interesting account of. 
the root-system of various species characteristic of the Sundri-forests, 
as apart from the Mangrove-forests, to which allusion will be made in 
a subsequent chapter. 
A few years later Mr. C. B. Clarke, whose personal knowledge of 
the Sundribuns is also very intimate, provided an excellent account 
of the topography and vegetation of the Sundribuns, Clarke's sketch 
of the region took the form of a Presidential address, delivered at the 
Anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society of London in 1895, and 
subsequently published in the Society’s Proceedings. This second 
* Professor of Botany, College of Science, Poona, then officiatirg as Curator 
of the Calcutta Herbarium. 
B 2 
