124 TlMEHRl. 
West India Islands at the Edinburgh International Fores- 
try Exhibition, have been sent me by Mr. HAWTAYNE 
who translated them from a pamphlet by Monsieur E. 
REUSS :— 
A copy of a pamphlet, on the International Forestry Exhibition held 
at Edinburgh in 1884, from the pen of Monsieur E, Reuss, an Inspector 
of Forests and Tutor to the French National School of Forestry, has 
been forwarded to the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society by 
the Government Secretary. 
M. Reuss devotes a few lines to a notice of the Exhibits from British 
Guiana in which he informs his readers that the specimens from this 
colony occupied almost as much space as did those in the Indian 
Section, and that of the 130 varieties of wood found in this part of the 
world some are very heavy. He also states that the most useful of our 
timbers belong to the genera Nectandra (Greenheart,) and Sapota 
(Bullet), but one is surprised to find Tecoma and Cordia ranked with 
these, since of the former the " hackia " is the only species used here, and 
then only for shovel sticks &c, while as I am informed by Mr. Jenman, 
there is no Cordia in the colony of which the timber is used. The writer 
observes that nowhere in the colony is there evidence of a conservancy 
of forests, and that the forests belong to the Government which grants 
them in lots to the colonists causing an unceasing diminution of 
accessible material. M. Reuss reports that half the forest-produ£ts 
are exported, and that in 1876 the value of timber sent to Great Britain 
was 1,654,475 francs or about $330,895, being ten times more than in 
1872. 
The British Guiana Exhibits though equal in number and bulk to 
those from India, were, in M. Reuss' opinion, far from possessing the 
same interest, and this he considers is attributable to there being no 
forestry department in the colony. Remembering M. Reuss' official 
position one is tempted to quote " vous etes orfevre M. Josse." 
Among the raw and manufactured produces, however, M. Reuss found 
numerous and large samples of valuable woods of " vivid tint ", barks, 
tanning materials, and a multitude of domestic articles and tools, in 
which wood or some other available part of a tree, was the principal 
material. 
M. Reuss winds up by remarking that the only publication shown, 
relating to Guiana, was a work on anthropology. 
