THE FORESTS AND FOREST FLORA OF THE COLONY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

361 pages of letterpress and 160 plates from line drawings, portrait of the author as frontispiece and three photographic plates, folding map, rebound in half maroon leather preserving the original cloth boards, titled gilt on the spine, light foxing on several plates, a very good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography, volume 2, page 319: The most elaborate and complete work on Cape forestry published up to this period. The volume contains chapters on the forests and their economic value, factors affecting forest growth and the distribution of species, an epitome of the history of Cape forestry, a synoptical index to indigenous ligneous genera, and systematic descriptions of the species enumerated with their popular and botanical appellations.

On the basis of his work in the Eastern Cape Sim was transferred to Natal as conservator of forests for that colony in September 1902, a post that had been abolished with the resignation of the former conservator in 1893. His brief was to re-establish a Forestry Department in Natal. He soon re-organised the forest service, issued regulations for the protection and utilisation of crown forests, and planted and named an arboretum of about 400 species of trees and shrubs at Cedara, the agricultural research station near Howick. In 1907 he published The forests and forest flora of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope (Aberdeen, 1907, 361p), the first comprehensive work on South African trees, with his own line drawings of 312 species. It provided a useful, though cumbersome handbook for the Forestry Department and is a monument to Sim's industry and perseverance. In 1908 he presented herbarium specimens of the family Thymelaeceae (small trees and shrubs) to the South African Museum.

That same year, as an advisor to the government of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), he made an extensive and arduous exploration of the forests of that country and wrote Forest flora and forest resources of Portuguese East Africa (Aberdeen, 1909), again illustrated with his own sketches. He also published papers and notes on various topics in the Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope and the Natal Agricultural Journal. His other activities included membership of the Natal Technical Education Commission, appointed in October 1904, and representing Natal at the South African Products Exhibition in London in 1907. http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2584

Gunn & Codd: Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa. Pages 323-324. Sim's Forest and Forest Flora was his major work along with his Forest Flora and Forest Resources of Portuguese East Africa. Both books were illustrated with his clear-cut and rather diagrammatic sketches and are milestones in our knowledge of the tree flora of Southern Africa.