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APPENDIX B. 
Report on the Forests of the Andaman Islands by Mr. S. Kurz, Curator of the Herbarium > 
Royal Botanical Gardens , Calcutta . 
In submitting this .Report on the timber trees and on their conservation, 
commenced around Port Blair, I beg leave to remark that, in spite of all the 
seeming completeness of my lists, hereafter offered, a vast field remains open for 
further explorations. I even believe that I have accumulated scarcely more than 
two-fifths of the existing kinds of forest trees, and I remain still unacquainted 
with the character of the forests north of Middle Andaman, of the 
Archipelago, and of Little Andaman. 
State of Forest Department at Port Blair .—I have visited the forests 
around Aberdeen and Mount Harriet, where forest operations seem to have 
taken place. The trees commonly girdled were almost exclusively ganggo, 
Mesna ferrea, padouk, Pterocarpus dalbergioides , and pyenma, Lagerstroemia. 
They were girdled indiscriminately without taking consideration of their girth 
or the density of their growth. I noted many ganggos girdled between two 
and three feet girth. These trees were only partially branded with the hammer. 
The girdling, I suppose, has been accomplished by natives only, without 
the supervision of an experienced officer. 
Major B . Ford's Report. —Major B. Ford, the present Superintendent of 
Port Blair, has given some statistical accounts of the state of the Eorest De¬ 
partment on the Andamans, and also the proportional constituents of those 
forests, in his Report to the Government of India for 1864-65. 
Forests practically reviewed.— The Andamanese forests are characterized by 
the very dense growth of climbers, which render them, especially along the 
coasts, nearly impenetrable without cutting. The trees are here, so to say, 
clothed by them, amongst which a climbing bamboo and prickly canes are the 
most troublesome. The many short ridges of small height favor the develop¬ 
ment of these climbers ; and I had often more difficulty to ascend a ridge of 
200 feet, than to go through a mile’s distance in dense but level jungles. 
The access, therefore, is made difficult, and the recognition of the different 
species often very troublesome. 'No roads or even paths exist beyond Port 
Blair and Port Mouat worthy of being mentioned, which could facilitate the 
examination of a larger tract, and therefore the greater part of these forests still 
remain unknown. The mean height of the trees of the high forests may be 
calculated to be 100 feet by a girth varying from 8 or 10 feet to one of 10 to 12 
feet, showing a clean stem ranging from 60 to 70 feet in height. The number 
Of trees varies (including the trees from four feet girth upwards) from 30 to 40 
in an acre down to 20 only. But in many places, as for instance in the bamboo 
jungles on Middle Andaman, scarcely 10 trees occur in a square of similar 
size. These, however, are nearly all of a girth of upwards of 10 feet, whilst in 
the former case scarcely six or eight can be found of such a size. 
Numerous smaller trees, amongst which especially the family of Euphor- 
biaceae, nutmeg trees, and Anonacese are prevalent, grow under the protec¬ 
tion of these gigantic trees, attaining a height of 30-40 feet with a small 
girth, rarely exceeding three to four feet. 
Shrubs, chiefly consisting of Anonaceae, Euphorbiacese and Rubiacese, but 
also of Violacese occur here in great quantity, but are not very dense in growth 
with a tendency to shoot up with a single stem. They, therefore, do not offer 
difficulties worthy of being mentioned. Grass, or any other dense vegetable 
clothing of the ground is nearly wanting during the dry season ; and the 
yellowish clay, which becomes during that time quite hardened, is then often 
dusty, wherever man or beasts have made a path. 
Difficulty to ascertain forest trees ex habitu.— Although trees may be 
easily recognized in a country botanically well explored, yet determinations of 
trees ex habitu in botanically unknown rigions are difficult and fallacious. All 
