NOTES 
OF A 
BOTANICAL TOUR IN TRAVANCORE. ETC, 
BY 
M. A. LAWSON, M.A., 
GOVERNMENT BOTANIST, MADRAS. 
I lett Ootacamund on the 14th November 1893, and returned on 
the 30th December; during this period I travelled over the follow- 
ing ground : — 
Ootacamund. 
Shoranur. 
Trichur. 
Cochin. 
Quilon. 
Ayur. 
Colatoorpooiy. 
Rockwood. 
Poonamudi. 
Murchiston. 
Ayur. 
Quilon. 
1 rivandrum. 
N agercoil. 
Cape Comorin. 
N agercoil. 
Tinnevelly. 
Ootacamund. 
My object in travelling over this large extent of country was to 
find out the best stations in which to establish trained collectors, 
rather than to make extensive collections of plants myself. 
At Quilon, I met Mr. Bourdillon, Conservator of Forests to the 
Travancor Government, and travelled with him for over a fort- 
night. From Mr. Bourdillon I obtained great assistance: he not 
only knows the country thoroughly well (he practically arranged my 
tour for me), but he has also a more extensive acquaintance with the 
trees of his district than any Forest officer I ever met with, with the 
exception of Sir Dietrich Brandis and Mr, Gamble. Mr, Bourdillon 
has promised to take people out with him, on tour, for the purpose 
of collecting plants ; but he scouts the idea of establishing centres 
for native collectors ; he says that he has tried this plan several times, 
and always without success. The men, he has sent, are afraid to go 
into the jungle by themselves ; they stick in the bazaar in some 
village, and bring back only the commonest weeds. My experience 
of Tamil collectors is equally unsatisfactory. 
