in volume owing to the destruction of wood in its valley, so as to affect materially the level of the Caspian Sea and Sea of Aral. With the exception of Bessarabia and the Caucasus, including the region south-west of the Caspian, the southern districts of Russia bordering the Black and Caspian Seas are extremely bare of wood, and for household fuel the people use a compost of straw, leaves, &c. The Government has attempted the planting of portions of the vast steppes, and near Odessa there are fine plantations of Ailanthus glandulosa, which give promise of success to further plantings (Marsh). The following statistics of the proportion of woodland in Russia are given in the Journal of Forestry, 1877 :

"There are in European Russia alone 172,418,000 dessintins (about 400,500,000 acres) of forests, or 43.3 per cent. of the entire territory. Such an extent of forests is not to be found in any other country of Europe. Two-thirds, or 66 per cent., of the mass of forests extend over the north-eastern districts; then follow the northwestern governments, where the relative proportion to the general area is 30 to 50 per cent. In the middle Volga, the Baltic, and western and central provinces the proportion is 27 2 per cent., in the southwestern it is 2.5 per cent., in the Little Russia and Steppe governments, including the Crimea, it is only 0.7 per cent. Finland and the Caucasus are not included, which contain splendid timber in great variety, nor the Polish governments, where the forests occupy a very extensive area.

"

In the Paris Exhibition Report, 1867, the area of forest in Finland is given at 2,500,000 acres, but in the most accessible parts wasteful and serious denudation has taken place.

The Scotch fir, the spruce, and the Siberian larch are the most common coniferous trees in Russia. The spruce penetrates furthest north, the Scotch fir grows well in the Crimea and the Caucasus, while the larch is chiefly found in the district drained by the Petchora river, and throughout Siberia. These three form the staple of the Russian timber export trade. Birch is also a tree of the northern latitudes, and extends eastwards as far as Kamchatka. In the central and over a large part of the southern portions of European Russia there are good forests of oak, and the beech, boxwood, ash, lime, maple, and walnut all grow in more or less profusion. The oak does not cross the Urals. The ridges of the Crimea are clothed with Corsican pine (Pinus Laricio), while the Scotch fir and beech form fine forests in the Caucasus.

The annual consumption of wood within the Russian empire is enormous, the estimated value being 260 millions of roubles, the railways requiring for fuel alone 7 million roubles worth. In the absence of stone nearly all the buildings are made of wood. Every year upwards of 100,000 vessels of different descriptions descend the Russian rivers, most of which on reaching their destination are broken up for building or fuel. Scotch fir and spruce are usually employed for this purpose. The collection of resin and tar in the northern provinces is very great, about 7000 tons of tar being annually exported. A new industry has sprung up of late years, viz., making pulp for paper from the wood of the aspen, a tree which readily reproduces itself. The lime furnishes material for rope, cordage, and matting.

In 1858, Baron von Berg, a distinguished forest officer of Saxony, was requested to report on the forests and forest management of Finland, and subsequently also of Poland. The establishment of two schools of forestry resulted from his visit. At the school of Nova Alexandria in Poland, established in 1858, the teaching of agriculture is combined with that of forestry. The passing of a gymnasium examination is necessary before admission. The course of study covers three years, when, after the final examination, the students receive a diploma entitling them to employment in the service of Government. At Evois in Finland, where the school was founded in 1859, the instruction is in forestry only. Though at the commencement the education and quarters were given free, the school had to be closed for lack of pupils; but in 1874 it was reorganized, and now it seems to be in a flourishing condition. The course extends to two years, and the instruction includes forest law and economy, surveying, book-keeping, engineering, mathematics, and kindred subjects. A forest school also exists at Peteroffsky near Moscow, and another at Berdiansk on the sea of Azoff, and many young Russians have been sent to the French and German schools to acquire a knowledge of forest science.

Roumania. It is computed that there are in Roumanis 2 million acres of forest land, though not wholly covered with wood. In the plains species of oak predominate, and according to elevation, walnut, beech, yew, silver fir, and spruce. But the coniferous trees have mostly disappeared, and the forests have been greatly damaged, while, owing to grazing rights, no young trees have been allowed to spring up. A small forest staff has now been appointed, and plans are being formed for the establishment of a school for training forest assistants.

The cork oak

France. The principal timber tree of France is the oak, and various species are much cultivated. is grown extensively in the south and in Corsica. The beech, ash, elm, maple, birch, walnut, and poplar are all important trees, while the silver fir and spruce form magnificent forests in the Vosges and Jura Mountains, and the Aleppo and maritime pines are cultivated in the south and south-west. About one-seventh of the entire territory

is still covered with wood. Forest legislation took its rise in France about the middle of the 16th century, and the great minister Sully In 1669 urged the enforcement of restrictive forest laws.

a fixed treatment of state forests was enacted, and in 1750 Mirabeau estimated the woodlands in France at 70 millions

Tho

hectares. Duhamel in 1755 published his famous work on forest trees. Reckless destruction of the forests, however, was in progress, and the Revolution of 1789 gave a fresh stimulus to the work of devastation. usual results have followed in the frequency and destructiveness of floods, which have washed away the soil from the hill sides and valleys of many districts, especially in the south, and the frequent inundations of the last fifty years are no doubt caused by the deforesting of the sources of the Rhone and Saone. Laws were passed in 1860 and 1864, providing for the reforesting, "reboisement," of the slopes of mountains, and these laws take effect on private as well as state property. Beneficial results have already ensued. Thousands of acres are annually planted in the departments of Hautes and Basses Alps; and during the summer of 1875, when much injury was done by floods in the south of France, the Durance, formerly the most dangerous in this respect of French rivers, gave little cause for anxiety, and it is round the head waters of this river that the chief plantations have been formed. While tracts formerly covered with wood have been replanted, plantations have been formed on the white shifting sands or dunes along the coast of Gascony. A forest of Pinus Pinaster, 150 miles in length and from 2 to 6 broad, now stretches from Bayonne to the mouth of the Gironde, raised by means of sowing steadily continued since 1789; and the cultivation of the same pine in the department of Landes has, along with draining, transformed low marshy grounds into productive soil. With the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, a large extent of forest was ceded to Germany in 1871.

An official report, dated 1872, gives the following forest areas:State forests....

Communal forests.. Private forests..........

Total

900,000 hectares. .2,000,000

..6,000,000

..8,900,000 31

In 1877 the French state forests contained 985,086 hectares, and the communal 1,919,622 hectares. The revenue in 1827 amounted to 27,000,000 francs, three-fourths of which was from the sale of timber, and one-fourth from other forest produce. The estimated revenue for 1877 was 38,500,000 francs, 29, 500,000 of which was to come from the regular fellings, and the remainder from extraordinary cuttings and minor forest produce. The annual expenses of the forest department average 13,000,000 francs. For 1877 the actual figures were 13,325,732 francs, of which about 5,000,000 is for the pay of the establishment, two and a half millions for roads, twe for plantations, and the balance for conservancy and management.

The department is administered by the director general who

has his headquarters at Paris, assisted by a board of administration, who meet twice a week, and are charged with the working of the forests, questions of rights and law, finance, and plantation works. The establishment consists of 36 conservators, 174 inspec tors, 310 sub-inspectors, and about 420 gardes généraux, the number being regulated by the exigencies of the service.

The department is supplied with officers from the forest school at Nancy. This institution was founded in 1824, when M. Lorentz, who bad studied forestry in Germany, was appointed its first director. Any French youth from eighteen to twenty years of age may compete for admission to the school on producing certain certificates and filing a bond guaranteeing the payment of 1500 francs a year, and 600 francs from the date of his joining the establishment till he is promoted garde général on full pay. The entrance examination comprises arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physical sciences, chemistry, plan-drawing, mechanics, German, history, geography, and free-hand drawing. The pupils pass two years in the school, and during a third attend lectures, while taking practical charge of portions of forest near Nancy. The school is under a director, a sub-director, and eight professors, besides two officers for military instruction. In the winter session eight hours daily are spent in the school, and the summer term is chiefly passed in forest tours, the pupils accompanying the professors, who apply the teaching of the school to objects found in the forest. There are usually 45 to 50 French pupils. The French Government has kindly extended the benefits of this well-equipped institution to candidates for employment in the state forests of British India.

Switzerland.-Forests in Switzerland cover about 18 per cent., or one-sixth of the whole area, but in some of the cantons excessive deforesting has taken place. On the precipitous mountain sides the forest is found to have a powerful influence in preventing the formation and descent of avalanches, and in the Alps the woods are preserved, though insufficiently, by law. A distinguishing feature of Swiss forests is the prevalence of the silver fir, Abies pectinata, which covers large tracts on the mountains up to 4000 feet; the larch is sometimes mixed with beech to 3000 feet, more rarely with oak and walnut to 1800 feet, and chestnut to 750 feet. Each canton regulates the management of forests within its own limits; but efforts repeatedly made in the Federal Council for the introduction of a uniform system of forest legislation throughout the republic have not yet been successtul. Vigorous attempts to preserve and restore wooded land are made in some of the cantons, and difficulties in the transport of timber from inaccessible points have been skilfully overcome by the ingenious adaptation of wooden tramways and iron rope slips.

Italy.-The kingdom of Italy comprises such different climates that within its limits we find the birch and pines of northern Europe, and the olive, fig, manna-ash, and palm of more southern latitudes. The ascertained extent of wood in 1872, including the wooded island of Sardinia, was, according to Siemoni, 5,025,893 hectares, or about 17.63 per cent. of the entire kingdom, a proportion which might with advantage be greatly increased, but in the latest return it has fallen to 12:34. By the republic of Venice and, the duchy of Genoa forestal legislation was attempted at various periods from the 15th century downwards. These efforts were not successful, as the Governments were lax in enforcing the laws. In 1789 Pius VL issued regulations prohibiting felling without licence, and later orders were published by his successors in the Pontifical States. In Lombardy the woods, which fifty years ago reached nearly down to Milan, have almost disappeared. The province of Como contains only a remnant of the primitive forests, and the same may also be said of the southern slopes of Tyrol. At Ravenna there is still a large forest of stone pine, Pinus Pinea, though it has been reduced to a third of its former extent. The plains of Tuscany are adorned with planted trees, the olive, mulberry, fig, and almond. Sardinia is rich in woods, which cover one fifth of the area, and contain a large amount of oak, Quercus Suber, Robur, and Cerris. In

Sicily the forests have been long felled save the zone at the base of Mount Etna.

The destruction of woods has been gradual but persistent; in the end of the 17th century the effects of denudation were first felt in the destructive force given to mountain torrents by the deforesting of the Apennines, and up to the present time the work of demolition continues. According to the statistics published by the Italian Government in 1870, there were 215,801 hectares of state forest, including woods attached to royal residences; but by the sale, alienation, or destruction of the greater part, the area has since been very greatly reduced. Of communal and private forests the extent is, according to Government statistics,

Only about 1,500,000 hectares are really covered with timber, as these figures include land with mere coppice or brushwood.

In 1867 the monastic property of Vallombrosa, Tuscany, 30 miles from Florence, was purchased by Government for the purposes of a forest academy, which was opened in 1869, and energetic measures were initiated throughou the kingdom for the preservation of the remaining woods. It is to be regretted that, by a change of policy, the area of forest has now greatly decreased. The administrative staff consists of 3 inspectors general, 35 forest inspectors, and about 300 subordinate officials. The royal forest school at Vallombrosa is surrounded by a splendid forest of silver fir, and a large extent of broad-leaved chestnut, beech, and other trees is also attached to it. Pinus halepensis and Pinea and larch are the other prevailing conifers. The number of pupils is about 60, and the course of study resembles that at Nancy. A forest periodical is regularly published at Florence. Director di Berenger, who has superintended the school from its foundation, is a man of great learning, and author of several important works on forestry.

Spain and Portugal are very deficient in woodland. The Peninsula is not unsuited to the growth of timber, as evinced by the noble forests which existed in the times of the Moors, especially in the southern provinces. There was a code of forest laws in Spain in the reign of Philip II., but it seems never to have been carried out, and the fine forests have long since disappeared. The evils of denudation are perhaps nowhere more signally exemplified than in Spain, and "Rentzsch even goes so far as to ascribe the political decadence of Spain wholly to the destruction Although her physical of the forests" (Marsh, p. 306). conditions render a large extent of forest almost indispens able to industrial progress, Spain may be said to be the only European country, with perhaps the exception of Great Britain, in which there has been no provision for the protection of woods.

The

The evergreen oak (Quercus Пlex), and its congener the cork oak (Quercus Suber), are found associated with Pinus Pinaster Sierra de las Albujarras, southward of the city of Granada, is clothed with fir woods up to the peaks on certain places, so that the existing forests would appear to be the remnants of a destroyed girdle of coniferous trees, formerly covering all these chains. In the fluviatile valleys of the Sierra Nevada isolated groups of trees present themselves, the wrecks of larger woods" (Henfrey, p. 295). In central Spain and on the slopes of the Pyrenees there are still considerable tracts covered with Pinus Laricio, P. pyrenaica, and P. halepensis, while on the northern coast Pinus forests more or less cultivated for the sake of its fruit, which is an Pinaster abounds. The sweet chestnut, indigenous in Spain, forms important article of food.

A forest school has been lately established in the Escorial, and good results from the training there may be hoped for.

The proportion of woodland in Portugal is nearly the same as that of Spain; but a system of management is in

operation under an administrator-general of forests. There are three forest zones characterized by the pine, the evergreen oak, and the deciduous oak. Pinus Pinaster abounds on the coast, giving place south of Lisbon to P. Pinea, the stone pine. The largest forest is that of Leiria, composed chiefly of the maritime pine, Pinus Pinaster; and adjoining the forest are establishments for the preparation of tar and resin, and the impregnation of wood.

Авга.

India. The forests of British India are of great extent and value. Under the rule of Hindu and Mahometan princes, as well as in the earlier years of British domination, the forests were recklessly injured by felling, or by the recurrence of destructive fires, thereby deteriorating the climate and impoverishing the people. But conservancy has been introduced in time to preserve many of the advantages they are calculated to afford, to make them a considerable source of revenue to the state, and to provide for the needs of future generations. The change from uncontrolled waste to careful state supervision is necessarily slow immemorial usages have to be overcome, and many obstructions to be removed, before the department is in good working order; great progress has, however, been made. The forest department is now a branch of the public service, for which candidates are annually selected by the Secretary of State for India.

Attention was first directed to conservation in India by the appointment of a committee by the British Association in Edinburgh in 1850, to consider the probable effects, in an economical and physical point of view, of the destruction of tropical forests;" and a report was printed in 1851, showing the importance of preserving every influence which tends to maintain an equilibrium of temperature and humidity, of preventing the waste of valuable material, and the special application to their various uses of the indigenous timbers of the country. Indian botanists, to their credit, had long urged on the Government the necessity of stopping the waste of valuable timber. Advancing civilization, the progress of agriculture, and the rapid extension of railways soon rendered it imperative that means should be taken to organize a general system of forest administration, to control the clearing of indigenous forests, and to economize public property for the public good. About 1855 the first attempts at organization were made, the executive arrangements being left to the local administrations. In Bonibay, Burmah, and Madras, conservators were appointed who started as it were single-handed and without skilled assistance, depen.ling on such help as could be found in the local services. After the mutiny of 1857 a staff of five or six assistants was sanctioned in each of these provinces, the more valuable forests were mapped oat, and exact information was obtained regarding their resources. In 1862 the Government of India organized a departmental system of conservancy for the whole empire, and the office of inspector general af forests was created. A Forest Act, No. 4 of 1864, gave power to local administrations to demarcate the limits of state forests, and to reserve certain trees for state purposes, and notified the mode of procedure in cases of damage, conflagration, &c.; and in October 1877 the report of a select committee on a bill to amend the law relating to the preservation of state forests was under the consideration of the Indian Government. Many of the forest officers first appointed were chosen because of local knowledge and love for natural history rather than their knowledge of practical forestry, but with these extended operations the want of trained assistants Boon became apparent. It was therefore determined to train young men specially for the work, and as forestry is in France a branch of Government service, advantage is taken of the forest school at Naney in France, and five or six youths, after having passed through the usual course of study there, both theoretical and practical, are annually sent to India. In 1876 the officers of the higher grades had increased to 147,-1 inspector general, 10 conservators of provinces, 136 deputies and assistants. The post of inspector general is held by Dr Dietrich Brandis, to whoss energy and experience is in great measure due the success which has attended the progress of the department.

Many large and valuable tracts of forest are in the territories of native chiefs; and to prevent these being wholly destroyed, the British Government leases them for a long term of years, paying an annual

1 A very comprehensive view of the geographic botany of the Asiatic continent and the distribution of its flora will be found in the article ASIA.

rent, or a seignorage on each tree felled. Throughout the empire the forest lands are burdened with grazing and other village rights, and it has required much tact to effect the formation of forest reserves to their present extent. As opportunity offers, unreserved forests are added to the reserves. The following figures embrace all the provinces under the Government of India (excluding Madras and Bombay). In 1875-6 the area of reserved and leased forests was 15,089 square miles, being an increase of 3000 square miles during the year. The aggregate area of plantations is about 26,000 acres, and the trees cultivated in the different provinces are as follows:

Bengal

North West Punjab.. Burmah.. Assam...

Madras

...Toon and Teak.

Provinces....Deodar, Walnut, and Horse-chestnut. Deodar, Slasu, Kikar, Ber, and Mulberry. .Teak.

Caoutchouc.

..Teak, Red Sanderswood, Casuarina, Eucalyptus. Coorg and Mysore.........Teak and Sandalwood, Berar.... .Teak and Babool. Oudh.. ....Sal.

cutch, caoutchouc, and lac, the last chiefly from the Central ProThe most important articles of export are teak, sandalwood, vinces. In 1875-6 the following amounts were exported from India:—

Caoutchone..............................................

Shell-lac......
Lac-dye...............
Sandalwood....

Cutch (Catechin...
Myrobalans....

Teak (50 cubic feet) ....

Tona

Prices per Ton 1282 rupees.

763

4,032

1613

The export of teak commenced about 1829, after the annexation of Tenasserim, and at first it was only from British territory. In 1835 teak began to come from beyond the frontier in largely increasing quantities. After the annexation of Pegu forest operations in British territory were regulated, and the average export to Indian and foreign ports from 1856 to 1862 was 20,000 tons, four times that amount coming from beyond the frontier. Nearly two-thirds of the teak goes to Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and the rest to Britain. The finest teak plantation is the Conolly plantation in Malabar on the Beypur River (Madras Presidency), where the rainfall is 150 inches annually. It now covers about 4000 acres, and 100 acres are added every year. The result has been most satisfactory, in the provision of an immense stock of valuable material, and the outlay incurred is being gradually recouped.

Cutch, the extract of the heartwood of Acacia Catechu, comes chiefly from Burmah, partly from Mysore and Malabar. It is used for tanning and dyeing. Lac is chiefly produced in Central India; the collection is expensive, but the quantity may be still further increased. Butea frondosa and Schleichera trijuga are the chief lac-yielding trees. Caoutchouc, the produce of Ficus elastica, is collected in Assam and Sikkim, and latterly also in Burmah, where, however, the tree is not indigenous. Most of the sandalwood of commerce (Santalum album) is from Mysore and Coorg, and is exported from Bombay. In Mysore more than half of the forest revenue is derived from this tree.

The surplus forest revenue from the different provinces for 1875-6 was as follows:The Presidency of Bengal....... 22,86,840 rupees. Madras...(deficiency 3,724) Bombay......

Berar.......

4,70,195 27,53,311

Total........................29,10,511 rupees, or £291,031. Much expenditure is needful for improving the roads through the forests, and for the blasting of rocks in rivers, which, both in the plains and in the Himalaya, are much used for floating logs. Fuel plantations on a large scale, especially in Madras and the Punjab, have been formed for the supply of railways and steamboats; the demarcation of forests is steadily carried on, the reserves are mapped, and laws are in force for the exclusion of cattle from the reserves and for the prevention of fires; waste has been prohibited, and in many ways a gradual improvement is taking place. New species of trees of rapid growth are being acclimatized. "From Australia several kinds of Eucalyptus and Acacia were introduced about twenty-five years ago, and they have made such progress that the station of Ootacamund is now almost surrounded by a forest of these trees. Their rate of growth is wonderfully fast, much faster than that of the indigenous trees. Young forests of the quinine-yielding Cinchonas are coming up in many places The management of these cinchona woods will probably be similar to the treatment of oak coppice in England; for though oak bark has not ne-twentieth the value of Jesuit's bark, it is the bark in both cases for which these woods are mainly cultivated. There will, however, be the difference that while oak coppice in Europe, after having been cut over, requires from fourteen to twenty years to yield another crop of bark, cinchonas grow so rapidly that they may probably be cut

over every eighth or tenth year" It has been decided to establish 1 forest school in North India for training candidates for the executive branches of service, and to attach to it a large area of reserved forest.

The teak, Tectona grandis, may be called the king of Indian timber trees; it is prized for shipbuilding beyond any other wood, and is specially valuable for works in contact with iron. It is indigenous in Hindustan as well as in Burmah and the neighbouring states, generally growing in company with bamboos and other trees in dry deciduous woods. It grows to perfection in Malabar and West Burmah, where the rainfall is heaviest. The northern limit is about 25° N. lat. The sal, Shorea robusta, another most important tree, forms extensive pure forestsalong the base of the Himalaya, from Assam to the Sutlej, and in the eastern part of Central India. It yields a heavy durable timber, in great demand for building, gun carriages, and railway sleepers. The deodar, Cedrus Deodara, is to North India what teak is to Madras, Bombay, and Burmah, and what sal is to Bengal and the great Ganges Doab. It is indigenous in the north-west Himalaya and the mountains of Afghanistan, and forms extensive forests in the basins of the Indus, Tonse, Jumna, and Bhagirati rivers. Black wood (Dalbergia latifolia) and sissu Dalbergia Sissu, toon (Cedrela Toona), satin wood (Chloroxylon Swietenia), sandalwood (Santalum album), red sanderswood (Pterocarpus santalinus), and the various kinds of ebony (Dios. pyros) are amongst the most important of the many valuable woods of India.

Official Reports on Forest Conservancy (4 vols. folio), showing the progress of departmental administration in India from 1862 to 1871, issued among parliamentary papers, contain much statistical and practical information. The advance of forest management in India has led to the publication of three useful handbooks:-(1) The Flora Sylvatica of South India, by Col. R. H. Beddome, Madras, 1873; (2) the admirable Forest Flora of North-West and Central India, by Dr Brandis, London, 1874; and (3) The Forest Flora of British Burmah, by the late Sulpiz Kurz, Calcutta, 1877. The systematic working of the forests has also been facilitated by the publication of a code for the transaction of forest business. There is an annual conference of forest officers, when questions of principle and practice are discussed; and a quarterly magazine of forestryThe Indian Forester-published in Calcutta, has been established for the record of observations and experiments. For a classified list of trees with vernacular names and local uses, see the works cited, and the jury reports of the Madras and Punjab Exhibitions; Cleghorn's Forests and Gardens of South India, 1861; Drury's Useful Plants of India, 1878; Dalzell's Bombay Flora, 1861; and Stewart's Punjab Plants, 1869.

Ceylon. The coast of Ceylon is fringed with the cocoa palm; the betel palm, talipat, and palmyra also abound, the last in the north of the island, while the interior is richly wooded, having ebony, calamander, satin wood, and 30 or 40, varieties of timber valued for construction and shipbuilding, but no teak. Forest reserves are being formed. (See Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylania, Thwaites, 1864.) Siam.-The forests of Siam contain a large amount of teak, some of which has been exported. Other principal trees are gamboge (Garcinia), gutta-percha (Isonandra), eagle wood (Aquilaria Agallocha), ratans, durian, mangosteen, (Garcinia Mangostana), and several valuable palms, as the sago (Sagus farinifera). Borneo is remarkable for its luxuriant vegetation, and the exten. sive forests produce ironwood, gutta-percha, ebony, sandalwood, ratans, sapanwood, gambir, dragon-blood, sago palm, and the mast (Calophyllum) and camphor trees (Dryabalonops).

China. The forest area of the great empire of China is little known, especially in the northern half, which resembles Japan. In the west there are large forests containing ebony, sandalwood, camphor tree, tallow tree (Stillingia sebifera), mulberry, paper-mulberry Broussonetia papyrifera), varnish tree, funeral cypress. The mountain regions of the islands of Formosa and Hainau are well wooded. From Formosa we obtain most of our supply of the camphor of commerce. (See Fortune's China, and Bentham's Flora Hong-kongensis.)

Japan is well wooded, and the arboreal flera presents a remarkable combination of sub-tropical and temperate forms,-the tree-fern, bamboo, banana, and palm growing with the pine, the oak, the beech, and conifere in great variety. The evergreen oaks and the maples are the finest of all Japan trees, whilst the Rhus vernicifera or lacquer tree, R. succedanea or vegetable-wax tree, Laurus camphora or camphor tree, and paper-mulberry are among the remarkable or characteristic trees of the country. (Siebold and Zuccarini's Flora Japonica.).

Siberia possesses immense tracts of forest, particularly in the neighbourhood of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Ekaterinburg. Pines, larch, cedar, and birch are the principal trees on the mountains north of the great steppes and marshy plains. The northern limit of the pine is about 70°. Willows, alders, and poplars are used for fuel on the plains. Elms and wild apricots are mentioned by travellers, bat the oak is not indigenous. It is estimated that Siberia contains 2,000,000 acres of forest in the districts above named. The

vast plateau of Tartary and Tibet is of great sterility, dry, and almost treeless, and the climate is very unpropitious. In Manchuria there are extensive coniferous forests, and on the east coast there is said to be oak on the mountains, while on the low land the maple, willow, apricot, and mulberry are found.

AMERICA.

America is of all quarters of the world the most thickly wooded with primeval forest. The territory on the north-west coast and islands is well stocked with pine timber.

Canada. The forests of British North America are of the first importance for the comfort and welfare of its people, as no coal is found in the centre of the Canadian dominion. Canada contained immense forests, which are still extensive, chiefly of black and white spruce, the Weymouth (Pinus Strobus) and other pines, which grow to a great height and do not admit of undergrowth. The dark and sombre forests are also rich in other commercial woods, such as oaks, ash, maple, hickory, and walnut. The export of timber is very great, and Great Britain draws more from Canada than from any other country. Pinus Strobus yields the largest amount, and is the most valuable of Canadian woods. It is now chiefly obtained from the head waters of tributaries of the St Lawrence. The extensive lumber trade is causing rapid denudation. Tracts of land are let to "Lumber Companies," whose object is to get as large a return as possible, and annually thousands of acres are destroyed by fire. An Art has recently been passed regarding the public lands of the Dominion, which provides for the care of young trees, whereby in Quebec it is no longer permitted to cut pine trees less than 1 foot diameter at the stump. It has also been proposed to establish a school of forestry.

United States.-The primitive forests of America were of immense extent, and contained a remarkable diversity of species, covering in the 17th century, with insignificant exceptions, all that portion of the North American continent which has been occupied by British colonists, and apparently adequate to the exigencies of advancing settlements to an indefinite future; but now, it is "doubtful if any American State, except perhaps Oregon, has more woodland than it ought permanently to preserve" (Marsh, p. 326). About 40 species of oak are indigenous in America, 16 conifers, several maples, birch, ash, beech, elm, hornbeam, hickory, poplar, maguolia, walnut, butternut, &c. The eastern, and midland States were at one time dense forests; now, Pennsylvania alone excepted, these are denuded of the pines and other commercial woods, and are compelled to draw much of their supply from Canada and the West. Even the forests in Pennsylvania, which once yielded the finest pines in America, are now greatly reduced in extent and value. The earliest restrictive measure of Government was adopted in 1817, when oak and red cedar were reserved; and a law was passed in 1881 to arrest spoliation. The enormous supplies of timber still brought.to market may be judged of from the fact that the number of saw-mills in 1870 was 25,817-an increase of over 6000 in ten years. Fortun ately public opinion has been aroused, and a Forestry Association has been formed, to show the vast annual decrease of forests, and the urgent necessity of planting to a large extent. In Massachusetts valuable prizes are offered for planting white ash and white pine, spruce and larch, with a view to the raising of useful timber, and affording the needed shelter to the crops. In 1858 a premium of 1000 dols. was offered for the best plantation of forest trees planted in 1860, payable in 1870. The States of Illinois, Missouri, aud, lowa have also encouraged tree-planting by State laws. Further west, in the prairie regions, energetic measures are being adopted to create woodlands on hitherto treeless plains. In Nebraska ash, walnut, and elm are largely planted, and along the Central Pacific Railway belts of Australian gum and other trees are being formed to protect the line from.snow drifts, and for a future supply of timber. In the State of California a forester has been appointed, and legal provision made to render the discharge of his duties effectual. By a law of California, dated 30th March 1868, the board of supervisors in each county are empowered to authorize owners of lands to plant and cultivate, along the public highways, shade and fruit trees, specifying the species to be planted, at what age, at what distance from each other and from the road bed, and making the necessary rules for their protection, &c. Four years after the planting, upon receiving a duly certified statement of the number then in a good condition, the board are directed to pay to the cultivator one dollar for each such tree. California still possesses her magnificent Sequoias, S. gigantea, which attain when full grown an average height of 275 feet, and a girth of 70 feetent 6 feet from the ground. Sir J. D. Hooker tells of a forest forty miles long, and 3 to 10 broad, in the Sierra Nevada, where alone the tree is indigenous. Wood-cutters and saw-mills are, however, busy at work, converting the valuable Sequoias into marketable timber, and sheep grazing and fires kindled by the lumbermen are effectually destroying the saplings. Hooker writes in 1878-"The devastation of the Californian forest is proceeding at a rate which is utterly incredible, except to an eye-witness. It is true that a few