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Dr. Wallich, on his visit to Burmah in 1826, collected specimens of upwards of sixteen thousand different sorts of trees and plants. I need only refer the reader to his learned and magnificent work for a description and classification of them.

The mineral riches of the land, which are considerable, are not sufficiently attended to. The head-waters of the various rivers contain gold-dust, and from Bamoo, on the frontier of China, much gold has been obtained. Malcom suggests that want of enterprise and capital has alone prevented these sources of prosperity from being worked. Yes, it has been that curse! From the earliest ages they have laboured under it, and time seems not to have taught them the important lesson that all the world beside are learning and repeating every day,—the necessity of progress. Much of their gold is drawn from China, and their love for using it in gilding edifices resembles the taste of the Incas, who, richer in the metal, plated their temples with gold.[11] What is not used for this purpose is employed in the setting of the jewels of the great, and as in Peru, remains in the hands of the Inca lords. It is rarely used as currency, and then in ingots.