Captain Munro on the Timber Trees of Bengal. 85 



being so commonly cultivated, nearly all over India, is known 

 to most Europeans. Although it thrives, to my own knowledge, 

 in almost every poHion of Hindoostan, it attains perfection in 

 a few favoured localities only. The Teak forests of Malabar 

 are well known. They are very extensive, and produce, ac- 

 cording to experiment, finer Teak timber than any other forest. 

 The trees generally grow in low hills of about 1000 to 3000 feet 

 elevation above the sea. Moulmein is also noted for its Teak. 

 I have seen large forests of the tree in Nagpore, and near 

 the Nerbudda ; the wood is very much used in that part of 

 the country, and appears to be of a very superior description. 

 In the Metcalfe Hall there is a very good specimen of Teak 

 grown in the Botanical Gardens, which has been worked up 

 into a table, and presented to the Society by the late Mr 

 Robison. From experiments carried on by Captain Baker, 

 and detailed in the first volume of " Gleanings in Science," 

 it would appear that Rangoon, Bombay, and Pegue Teak were 

 almost of the same strength, but are far surpassed by the 

 Malabar Teak. Captain Baker's experiments, which will be 

 constantly referred to, were carried on with specimens of 

 wood two inches square and six feet long. In these trials 

 the average weight required to break the Malabar Teak was 

 1070 lb., whilst the other kind broke with an average of 

 870 lb. The extremes in these trials are very remarkable, 

 indicating a very great difference in value of difi^erent speci- 

 mens of the same timber ; the specimen from Rangoon, 

 breaking with 654 lb., and another from Malabar required 

 1162 lb. Teak will not bend so much as Sdl or Soondree, 

 and breaks with about the same weight as S41. It is, there- 

 fore, easy to determine for what purposes Teak is best 

 adapted. It is used, as is well known, for an infinite number 

 of purposes in India. The experiment made by Captain Baker 

 differs much from the results of Major Campbell's experiment 

 at Cossipore, as detailed in the Transactions of the Society 

 of Arts. The Malabar specimen seems to have been a bad 

 one ; but as many of the other specimens were from un- 

 seasoned wood, they are not so much to be depended on. 



2. Ghumbar, Gomar^ or Ghumharre — Gmelina arhorea^ 

 Linn. — This belongs to the same natural family as the Teak, 



