Pigeon pea, locally known as Arhar (Cajanus cajan), cultivated in the marginal land, village groves, denuded and naked hills and roughly 1,45,000 km of roadsides of Bangladesh, has the potentiality of supplying half the national firewood requirement, the entire pulpwood demand and many times over the Arhar pulse requirement of the country.
The stalk of Arhar plant was subjected to chemical analysis. The percentages of chemical components were found to be comparable to those of many indigenous hardwood species. The results indicate that the plant has the potentiality to be med for conversion to paper and dissolving pulp for rayon. The protein content of Arhar seeds was found to be 20.4%. The calorific value of the plant stalk compares favourably with those of many tropical hardwoods.

Seed germination and optimum time of transfer of seedlings of Calamus spp. from seed bed to polyethylene bag were studied. Seeds of C. latifolius Roxb. (Bhudum-bet) and C. guruba Buch.-Ham. (Jali-bet) sown under higher temperature (27-35’C) and humidity (90-95%) showed 42 and 71% germination within 12-31 weeks and 4-9 weeks respectively. Germination of C. latifolius seeds increased on removing the scaly epicarp and fleshy sarcotesta manually with ash. Seedlings of C. guruba of one to five weeks age when transferred from seed bed to polyethylene bag, showed significantly higher height growth up to five months compared to those transferred sub-sequently.

A trial with five mangrove species namely, Heritiera forties, Excoecaria agallocha, Sonneratia apetala, Avicennia officinalis and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza and six mainland species namely, Albizia lebbeck, Samanea saman, Swietenia niacrophylla, Leucaena leucocephala, Cassia siamea and Acacia nilotica was carried out in a raised noncommercial cover area of the sundarbans to obseive their survival and growth performance. The mangrove species were found to be unsuitable. Animal damage was substantial to mainland species and fencing had significant impact on survivality, except for A. nilotica. C. siamea, S. saman and A. nilotica showed better performance than other species.

A study was conducted to evaluate the Suitability of Pigeon pea stem for making paper pulp. Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) stem is characterized by shorter fibres compared to hardwood species. Medium quality pulp was obtained from this plant. The pulp may be suitable for making good quality writing and printing papers. The demand of the raw materials for pulping can be met if Pigeon pea is planted along the 1,45,000 km roads in Bangladesh.

Bara bet (Calamus viminalis Willd. var. fasciculatus Becc.) seedlings produced a well-developed taproot within 10 days of germination. After one month the secondary roots were found to appear from the taproot system. The rate of taproot elongation declined subsequently and at the age of 5 months lateral roots developed from the base of stem. The taproot either stopped growing or degenerated between 6 and 11 months and profuse lateral roots of about 30 cm length developed by the age of 12 months. The number of lateral roots and their length and depth from ground level increased with age. A mature plant of 6 years produced about 4.13 m long lateral roots, 30 cm below ground level anchoring approximately 16 m3 of soil. The root system was of horizontal spreading type. The plant also produced maximum number of vertical rootlets within 30 from the base of long lateral roots. The diameter of root from the base to tip was more or less uniform but abruptly tapered at the tip, with a thick, pointed root cap.

Local substitutes for expensively imported malt extract and dextrose in agar media in the form of sugarcane gur and glaxose respectively were investigated. Colony diameter of 14 fungi and mycelial dry weights of 9 fungi were compared on 2 % malt extract agar (MA) and 2,3, 4 and 5% sugarcane gur agar (GA) ; potato dextrose agar (PDA) and potato glaxose agar (PGA). Diameter giowth on 4 % GA and PGA was comparable to 2 % MA and PDA respectively. Four per cent gur is recommended for GA medium. Glaxose is incorporated in PGA at the same rate as dextrose in PDA. Gur frem 4 different localities in Bangladesh incorporating 4% GA resulted in
insignificantly different colony growth of the two fungi tested.

This paper considers forest inventory from mathematical points of view. Several text-book results have been proved mathematically. Also, a possible mathematical definition of time of felling of a tree has been suggested. Finally, using the results of this investigation, the mathematical model presented by Choudhury and Chowdhury (1983) has been examined and an alternative model has been proposed.

Members of Loranthaceae are stem parasites of wide range of hosts. An extensive list of the hosts of the members of South-Indian Loranthaceae were given by Fischer (1926) and another list was given by De (1941). A long list of the host plants for Dendrophthoe falcata (Linn, f.) Etting. has been provided by Singh (1962). This list was further up-dated by Johri and Bhatnagar (1972). Records for the hosts of other broad-leaf species of Loranthaceae are rather scanty. Macrosolen cochinchinensis (Lour.) Van Tiegh. is distributed from tropical Himalayas and Nepal to Bangladesh and attacks a large number of plants.About 20 hosts have hitherto been reported for M. cochinchinensis (Fischer 1926, Kanjilal et al. 1940, De 1941, Sinclair 1955, Greenham and Hawksworth 1964 and Ganguly and Pal 1975).

The present paper reports on hosts of M. cochinchinensis which have not been recorded so far.

A collaborative study was undertaken to find out suitable indigenous timber species alternative to Walnut for manufacture of rifle butt. Various properties like,; anatomical, physical, mechanical, machining, treating and finishing, of five potential species were studied and compared with those of Walnut. A time-dependant kiln schedule was developed for seasoning the alternative species in a single charge. The assembled rifle butts of all these species were subjected to the standard service and endurance tests. The results indicate that Gamar,
light coloured Champa and Teak may be used along with Chickrassy for manufacture of rifle butt.

Czapek Dox Agar modified by Oxoid (CDA) suppressed significantly the growth of Sclerophoma pythiophila (Gda.) Hohn compared to that on either of Malt Extract Agar, Potato Dextrose Agar or Oat Meal Agar. The effects of the individual ingredient of CDA on the growth of the fungi were also assessed. It was found that magnesium glycerophosphate of CDA was toxic to S. pythiophila but not to Ramichloridium pini de Hoog and Rahman. An increase of the dose of this salt from 0.5 to 4.0 g/1 of CDA medium resulted a further significant suppression of S. pythiophila compared to the growth of the fungus on CDA and supported considerably higher
growth of R. pini upto ten days. The new modified GDA medium was effective to act as a medium for selective isolation of R. pini and suppression S. pythiophila.