A rapid micro-propagation protocol was established for Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr., an important medicinal plant for the treatment of
various ailments such as diabetes, hypertension and urinary tract infection. The shoot tips of three months old plants were used as the explants for the initiation of in vitro culture in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with Img/L BAP. Optimization of rapid proliferation of shoots was carried out by culturing the in vitro derived shoots onto MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of BAP and KIN (0.0, 0.5, 1.0,1.5, 2.0 mg/L). Maximum shoot proliferations an average of 21.33 shoots were produced per culture from each shoot in 1.0 mg/L BAP. The effect of different strength of sugar (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 gm/L) and sub culturing on culture medium were observed for optimization of shoot producing. The micro-shoots produced normal roots within two weeks of culture on the basic % MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L IBA. The rooted plantlets of G. procumbens were transferred in soil and kept under green house for hardening with a temperature of 25-29°C and 90% relative humidity for two weeks. About 99% of the plantlets survived after two weeks of transferring into polybag with soil:cowdung (3:1) in the nursery bed. The tissue culture plants showed normal growth and development in poly bag within 6-8 weeks. The regenerated shoots were macro proliferated and produced a large number of new plants in the nursery within a short period of time.

Cooking fuels share the largest part of primary energy consumption in therural areas of Bangladesh. Understanding the demand situation of the cooking fuels facilitates the rural energy planning in Bangladesh. This study investigates the demand of biomass fuels for cooking through rural household and market survey in the rural areas. It adopted a cluster sampling technique to select 60 households from four villages of two unions under Palash Upazila of Narsingdi district. The major cooking fuels consumed by the households were firewood, branches, leaves-and-twigs, bamboo, rice straw, rice husk and jute stick. Price elasticity of demand of firewood was 0.317 revealing that fire wood was an inelastic market commodity in that area. It is expected that this study will be helpful for rural energy development in Bangladesh.

Selecting exceptionally Heritiera fames seedlings from nursery is a promising and low-cost means of tree improvement, according to the study. From 2010 to 2016, 18,000 outstanding seedlings were chosen from nursery in the Sundarban and out planted. The final assessment as to efficiency of seedlings selection from selected trees of top-dying affected and non-affected (Healthy) areas awaits comparison of progeny from chosen selects with those from similarly chosen controls to see how much of the phenotypic gain is truly genetic. This investigation involved more selections and plantations than had not been tried for H. fomes in the past. The next step in evaluating nursery selection is to compare progeny from selects with those of controls to see how much of the phenotypic gain is truly genetic. The great promise of Ls, L4, L12, Lie, Lso, L35 & L36 line of H. fomes trees has been achieved with expected superior genetic material of unknown origin. This is reflected in the high variability observed in growth amongst individuals. Using advanced propagation techniques, these can be cloned and potentially provide the genetic base for a highly successful clonal forestry program for creation of top dying resistant H. fomes trees.

In this study, six Trichoderma strains viz. Trichoderma virens IMI-392430, T. pseudokoningii IMI-392431, T. harzianum IMI-392432, T.
harzianum IMI-392433, T. harzianum IMI-392434 and T. viride FPDTV and one commercial formulation of Trichoderma (Bio derma) were evaluated alone and in combination with F. solani, to assay their efficacy in suppressing root rot disease and promoting growth and yield ofW. somnifera. A pot trial experiment was conducted at the forest protection division nursery, Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI), Chattogram, Bangladesh from July 2014 to December 2014. Application of T. harzianum IMI-392433 alone (T12) or in combination with F solani (T5) significantly (p = 0.05) decreased the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) (300.9 and 52.4) compared to F. solani (Tl) treatment. The highest seed germination rate (90.4 %) and the highest growth and yield were also recorded in the same treatment; while F. solani treatment (Tl) alone significantly decreased these values. The correlation matrix showed that root yield of W. somnifera had significant and positive correlation with plant height (r = 0.734**), number of leaf (r = 0.725 **), number of primary branch (r = 0.863 **), number of secondary branch (r = 0.878**), fresh shoot weight (r = 0.749**), dry shoot weight (r = 0.708**), number of flower at maximum flowering time (r = 0.734**), number of pod (r = 0.774**), number of seed (r = 0.642**), hundred seeds weight (r = 0.688**), seed yield/plant (r =
0.817**), root length (r = 0.711**), root diameter (r = 0.970**) and fresh root weight (r = 0.819**). The significant and negative correlation (r = – 0.619 **) was observed with the root yield/plant and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC). These results revealed that T. harzianum IMI-392433 has growth promoting effects and this strain may be used as an effective biocontrol agent to control root rot disease of W. somnifera.

A nursery trial was conducted at National Forest Seed Centre, Seed Orchard Division, Bangladesh Forest Research Institute, Chittagong to evaluate the effect of storage condition and duration on germination of Agar seed. Agar seed were stored at five different storage condition viz. open air (control), sand, chalk powder, normal refrigerator (0-40C) and saw dust for different storage durations viz. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 and 36 days. Storage condition, duration and their interaction were found significant on germination of Agar seed. Refrigerator (0~40C) showed the highest germination (82%) at 3 days duration. It also prolonged the seed viability (12%) up to 33 days. Such technique of maintaining viability of Agar seed may be useful for raising seedlings and plantations at large scale.

Wood is widely used in all over the world because of its excellent physical, mechanical and finishing properties. However, the machining and
handtool properties of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) wood were ascertained for the characterization of working properties in this study. The effects of machining properties, such as- planing, shaping, boring, mortising and turning were tested on this wood species along with handtool test. The evaluation of each test was based on frequency of occurrence of defect free sample. The applications of two types of polishing materials, namely: shellac and carpa were used for the purpose of finishing property evaluation. Each sample was visually observed and classified based on five quality grades. This wood showed an excellent working performance in all properties except handtool property in planing test.

The Acacia hybrid, a cross between Acacia mangium and Acacia auriculiformis, grows in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and China (Kha 2000; Kijkar 1992; Rufelds 1987, 1988). At present forest department and local people of Bangladesh have been planting thousands of
hectares of these species. Acacia hybrid is a fast growing medium sized leguminous tree. The species is more productive than either of the parent species. The wood density is slightly higher than A. mangium, and moreover the shape of the log is almost completely round, which renders Acacia hybrid as a valuable and excellent source of timber (Jusoh et.al 2014). In Bangladesh it has very limited use. Due to this Bangladesh Forest Research Institute has been conducting research to determine its end use for efficient utilization. Scientists found that the species is fine grained and may be used for making furniture, small hand tools, cabinet door frame, window frame and pulp and paper (Rokeya et.al 2010). It peels easily and produces the best quality veneer which can be used for decorative purpose, plywood for general use and particleboard (Rahaman et.al 2012). To this end, hardboard making study is undertaken for knowing the suitability of the species.