Fibre dimension studies of five Bangladeshi woods, namely, Moluccana koroi (Albizia falcataria), kainjal (Bischofia javanica), jialbhadi (Lannea coromandelica), narikeli (Pterygota alata) and chundul (Tetrameles nudiflora) wets carried out to find out their suitability in paper making. From the data, Runkel ratio, flexibility co-efficient and relative fibre length, which influence certain pulping properties, were deduced. Attempts were made to correlate fibre dimensions to pulping properties of certain species namely, Moluccana koroi and Kainjal. Considering the fibre length and certain anatomical characteristics, the potentiality of narikeli for pulping has bee suggested. It is concluded that fibre dimensions along with pulping properties and the manufacturing processes should be the guiding principles in evaluating the suitability of the species in paper making.

Pestalotia sp., a fungal pathogen causing leaf blight disease of pony al ( Calophylum enophylum Linn.), was isolated. The finding was confirmed by the artificial inoculation of healthy leaves ofpanyai plants with the isolated pathogen. Besides, the average quantitative incidence and infection index of the disease on naturally infected plants during 1976-1978 were estimated.

Of the 10 M  m² of raw hides produced annually in Bangladesh only a fifth is tanned by 175 odd tanneries, using imported tanning materials. Vegetable tannins can be extracted from roughly 10,000 tors of mangrove barks available annually at the felling coupes in the Sundarbans. Amelioration of the properties of these tannins is, however, a precondition to their use as tanning materials.

Tannins were extracted by various methods from goran (Ceriops decandra), kankra (Brugiera gymnorrhiza) and passur (Xylocarpus molluccensis) barks collected from the Sundarbans. The percentages of tannins obtained were 24, 21 and 17 respectively. A method was developed for overall purification and improvement of colour and quality of tannin. Chemical analysis indicates that the tannin is of catechol group and quantitative analysis of the extractives shows that the production of mangrove tannins would be an economically viable proposition. Tanning experiments with goat skin show that light coloured and fine-grained uppers and soles can be made with the purified tannins.