INDIAN FORESTRY,
Indian Trees. By Dietrich Brandis. (A. Constable and Co. 16s. net.)—To Sir Dietrich Brandis, more than to any other man, is due the development of the great forestry system of India, which has done so much for the economic exploitation of this important department of the natural resources of our greatest dependency. It is just over fifty years since he entered the service of the old Company, and forty-three since he was appointed Inspector-General of Forests under the Queen's Government. The result of the twenty years during which he held that responsible position has been the establishment of a service which does more than its fair share for the good of the Indian people, and which works with an efficiency out of all proportion to its expense,—thanks in the main to the admirable organisation introduced by Sir Dietrich Brendle, and to the con- tagious enthusiasm which he contrived to inspire in his sub- ordinates. "Should any one look down upon them," he says in the preface to the book now before us, ' because their work makes no show and does not bear fruit immediately, like that of the engineer and other public officers, they will console themselves with the proud consciousness that they are the guardians of the future and permanent interests of the three hundred millions who inhabit the great British Indian Empire, and that they are contributing materially to ensure the comfort and welfare of future generations." The Indian forest service has furnished a model for other nations, and in this book, which is the outcome of a life of singularly wide experience, as well as of eight years of systematic labour, Sir Dietrich Brandie has supplied an encyclopaedia" for foresters and others who may wish to make themselves acquainted with the immense variety of trees, shrubs, climbers, bamboos, and palms in the British Indian Empire." Its first object is to facilitate the identification of trees. and shrubs, which its admirable precision of arrangement and lucidity of description—aided by numerous excellent illustrations—should
completely attain. The book is indispensable to all students of Indian flora, and is a worthy crown to its author's long career of service to so:saki:id.
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