Colonel Bedclome's "Flora Sylvatica of the Madras Presidency and Ceylon," Mr.
S. Knrz's "Preliminary Forest Eeport of Pegu," the "Manual of Indian Timbers"'
the "Special Catalogue of the exhibits of the Government of India and private
exhibitore at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1880," and other similar catalogues,
the introductions to the monographs of Eupreoht and Munro, and various papera in
the "Indian Porester," the Proceedings of the Agi-i-Horticultural Societies, and other
Indian publications, afford information of value and importance. For those who
have lived for some time in India, it is difScult to imagine how the country would
get on mthout bamboos, for from bamboo—at any rate in all but the veiy driest
regions to which it would be too far to cany tliem profitably—are made the
houses, the furniture, the carts, the fittings of boats, the fences, the "domestic utensils
the weapons: in short, almost all the objects of daily use, and the necessaries of daily
life. Bamboos are also used as food, both by the people (grain and young shoots)
and by their cattle (the leaves) ^ as a material for making paper; as a means to
procure fire; and m plantation, as ornaments to the villages and gardens.
The propagation of bamboos is simple enough: it is best done by serf, but
can be done by taking root-offseU, though in. this case there is always a danger
of the resulting clumps flowering when the parent clump flowers (we have seen
this dearly in recent plantations at the base of the Saharanpur Siwaliks, North-Western
Provinces), also by U ym from branches bent to the ground and pegged down, and
lastly by cnitings, though these latter are by no means easy to get to strike.
The management of bamboo forest is easy if the clumps have been attended to
from the beginning, that is, if dry calms have been regularly removed, if cutting at or
near gi-ound level has alone teen permitted, and if mature culms have been regularly
thinned out yearly, so as to leave ample space for the development of new ones:
but this state of things rarely, exists in the natural forests, and especiaUy in those
m which cutting is given over to contractors or allowed on permit. Consequently
to bring such forests into a state fit to give the best yield in material and revenue'
the interference of the owner is necessaiy, and often some considerable capital
expenditure. On tins subject "The e.xploitation of bamboo forest, lud. Forester
XVII, 186," may be consulted; the article refera to Northern India and chiefly to
the common Dmdrocalamus strietm, but the recommendations wiU also apply to most
other useful kinds.
In Burma, the majority of teak forests are composed of a main ci-op of bamboos,
above the canopy of which appear the crowns of trees and especially teak, and it
IS only when a year of bamboo-seeding takes place that suppressed young teak can
get a start or teak seedlings appear. So that it is necessary for forest officers to
watch and see when indications of flowering are given, and be ready, after clearing
off the dry crop of bamboos by flre, to restock as much as possible of the area"
either by allowing natural teak seedlings to come on, or by sowing or plantin-^
artiflciaUy. The species which are in this way chiefly associated with teak are the
"Mymwa" [Deadroealamm strktm), " Tinwa" {OejMoataehjum pergradle), and
"Kyathaungwa" ^— - ' ^
I5TR0DTJCTI0X. XV
Soon after I commenced my career in India as a forest ofiieer, my attention
was rery forcibly drawn to the difliculties which existed in recognizing in the forests,
and especially in the great evergreen forests, the trees which were met with, and
among them the various species of bamboo. The leaves of bamboos, and especially
those of the bigger species, have sueh a very similar appearance, that either in
the field or from dried leaf specimens, it is most difficult to say to which species
any given example belongs. On individual clumps, too, the leaves may vary so
greatly in size and shape, according to the part they are taken from, that one
cannot always be sure of identification. In this way, I was led to examine closely,
in the part of the country in wdiich I was at work from 1872 onwards, such clumps
as I met with, in order to see if I could not discover some better characters for
certain identification which could be used by the forest staff. In 1872 I had made
the acquaintance of the late Mr. Sulpiz Kurz, Curator of the Herbarium of the
Boyal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and found that he, too, was greatly interested in
the same subject and was actually engaged in preparing an account of the Indian
and Malay species, paj-ing special attention to those characters which were likely
to help the forest ofiicers of Burma, in whose behalf he was engaged on his wellknown
and excellent "Forest Flora," to enable them to distinguish between the many
important kinds they came across daily. Mr. Kurz's work on the bamboos began with
the publication in January 1876, in vol. I of the then newly-established magazine,
the " Indian Forester," of a paper on "Bamboo and its use," which admirable article
is still probably the best general treatise on the subject: and was followed, in April
of the same year, by an account of the species known to him to be found in
the Indian Archipelago and Malaya, and wliich he had carefully studied in the
Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg in Java. Mr. Kurz's intention had been to give
next an account of the Indian species, but his sad death at Penang in December
1877 'prevented this, though the materials he had collected, consisting of Herbarium
specimens, drawings, notes and dissections, were left available, and have been fully
utilized in the present work. So far as the Burmese species were concerned, his
"Forest Plora of British Burma" had supplied all that was known at that time, but
the species of India proper still remained.
In 1887,1 was in England on furlough, and while there I took the opportunity
of carrying my own collections to Kew^ in order to compare them with the valuable
set in the Royal Herbarium, with the intention of putting together in a short
paper some notes on the best means of recognizing species. Some friends, and
especially Dr. George K.ing of the Calcutta Garden, had recommended me, to do
more, and their advice was so strongly repeated by Sir Joseph Hooker, K.O.S.I.,
the late, and Mr. W. H. Thiselton-Dyer, C.M.O., O.I.E,, the present, Du-ector of
the Boyal Gardens at Kew, that I was induced to try my best to carry out their
wishes. The result is the present work, which Dr. George King has so kindly
assisted me to pubhsh in the Annals of his great establishment. The Hst of
those who ha™ assisted me in the w^ork is a long one, and I cannot too gratefully
acknowledge the kind -way in which my friends have helped me. Besides