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Review of Forest Administration in British

India, 1891-2.

Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic

Society, No. 5, 1887. Purchased.

New Ferns, 1874-91, by J. G. BAKER. Pur-

chased.

Notes on Antigua Pine Apples, 1892-3. From Superintendent of Agriculture, Leeward Is- lands.

Provisional List of the Indigenous and Natural-

ised Flowering Plants of Jamaica. From Director of Public Gardens and Plantations. Pluvitas Novas Cultivadas no Jardim Botanico

de Rio de Janeiro.

Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, No.

1,190, 1893. Purchased.

Report on Missouri Botanic Gardens, 1893. Report on the Island of Formosa with special reference to its resources and Trade, by Mr. HOSIE. Purchased.

Report Botanic Gardens and Forest Department,

Singapore, 1892.

Report, Colonial Herbarium, Natal, 1892. Report of the Governor, Principal, and Fellows

of McGill University, Montreal, for 1891-2. Report on an Outbreak of Shot Borer in St.

Kitts Sugar Estates, 1892-3. From Super- intendent of Agriculture, Leeward Islands. Report on Furcræa Fibre Plantations in the Lee- ward Islands, 1892-3. From Superintend- ent of Agriculture, Leeward Islands.

Report on the Progress and Condition of the Government Saharanpur and Mussoorie Gardens, 1893.

Report on the Failure of the Dominica Cacao

Crop, 1892-3. From Superintendent of

Agriculture, Leeward Islands. Report, Botanic Gardens, Grenada, 1892. Report, Botanic Gardens, Natal, 1892. Report, Botanic Gardens, Royal, Calcutta, 1892-

1893.

Report, Botanic Gardens, Royal, Ceylon, 1892. Report, Botanic Gardens, Royal, Mauritius, of

the Cyclone, 1892.

Report, Botanic Gardens, Royal, Trinidad, 1892. Report of the Department of Agriculture, Bris-

bane, 1891-2.

Report of the Government Botanical Gardens

and Parks, Bangalore, 1891.

Report of the Pomologist, Department of Agri-

culture, 1892.

Report of the Queensland Acclimatisation So-

ciety, 1893.

Report of State Forest Administration in New

South Wales, 1892.

Relatorio sobre Trabalhos do Jardim Botanico apresentado em 31 de Março de 1892. From Botanic Gardens, Rio de Janeiro. Relatorio sobre Trabalhos do Jardim Botanico apresentado em 7 de Outubro de 1890.

FORESTRY.

20. The most suitable lands for tree growth are being rapidly filled up, and in consequence of this and the yearly increase of attention which established plantations require a commencement has been made of gradually diminishing the yearly plantings. The total number of trees planted was 279,648, which I propose to further decrease to a quantity not exceeding 100,000 per annum in future. Hitherto a good deal of work has been done by sowing seeds in situ, (in little pits where no trans- planting is required); the area of land suitable for this method of cultivation is now about exhausted, therefore future work will be almost entirely confined to actual planting.

21. A very large extent of land is entirely unfitted for tree growth on account of its exposure to winds, scarcity and poverty of soil, and arid nature. This unsuitability prevails over all the hill tops, except in very few little spots, and on many wind-swept ridges and breasts on lower levels. Nearly all aspects at the eastern end of the Island where the north-east winds blow on them with their full force throughout half the year will never produce respectable trees. In past years experiments were made in many such places, and these experiments have fully demonstrated what I now state. Trees will grow for a few years, but when above the small shelter they receive from herbage and other small obstacles they dwindle away.

. 22. On the other hand where trees have been planted in sheltered ravines and on southern and western aspects where the north-east winds cannot reach them except with abated force, success has been perfect. As instances of this I may point out the stretches of land from the West Point Batteries to Pokefoolum, and round from thence to Deep Water Bay, in the Happy Valley, Causeway Bay hills, Quarry Bay, Kowloon, &c.

23. Statistics of the Planting in 1893 are given in appendix C.

Flague of Caterpillars.

24. Great difficulties have always presented themselves in effectually carrying on forestry work, but most of them have been surmounted by incessant application of watchfulness and energy. A new foe of great power presented itself last year in the shape of a caterpillar which in millions attacked pine trees in Kowloon and on the Quarry Bay hills. This pest is the caterpillar of a large moth, Eutricha punctata, (Walk.) which was kindly determined for me by Dr. GUNTHER, F.R.S., from specimens I sent to him in different stages, at the same time as those I alluded to in paragraph No. 5 of this report.

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