March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



68 c 



of this subject, which may partly be considered as a branch ! 

 of Commercial Industry, partly ai^TicuItural. 



Djatti-wood is the staple building material in Java and 

 indeed throughout India. It is used for all kinds of works 

 for houses, ship-bnildinj^, bridges, piers, railways, etc. as 

 also for finer work, such as furniture, cases, etc. It is 

 moreover largely used for lining the insides of the iron or 

 steel plates of iron-clads, gun-carriages, etc. 



The Djati, as to its scientific clai!.sification, belongs to 

 the I'erbenaceae, that order — the 173rd of Jliquel. in his 

 "Flora of Netherland India" (v. vol. II, p. .S36)— which we 

 have already made acquaintance with in treating of 01. 

 10 Litt. E. " Sylvan Proiluctions,"' as including among others 

 the laliHu, aras. or govasa (Vitex pubescens). Hitherto only 

 two species were known, 1 ° the Tectona Hamiltoniana of 

 Further India (where it is called Ta-I a-hnt) and the 

 Philipine Islands, but are not found in our Archii^elago, 

 a fine tree enough, but whose wood is only of relative 

 value, no commercial or staple article, and of no signific- 

 ation in this account; and 2®. The Tectona (or according 

 to aome "Tectonia" I </ra/uUs (iUq. 11.901). We owe this 

 name, now in general use, to the younger Linnaeus; 

 Loureiro called the tree with a small variation, Tectona 

 Theka. It had already been named more than once, chiefly 

 by the following names. In 1658 Bontius still thought 

 the tree to be an oak, Quercus Indica (Hist. Nat. Ind. 

 Orient. VI. cap. 16, p. 151), and this name prevailed here 

 and there, as '^Indian oak," "Cliene de .Va/ahar," '•Clii'ne 

 des Iiides" (even "hois pitant"). Rheede, in 1678 — 1703, 

 called it, (in his Hortus Malabaricus, IV, 57 and pi. 27) 

 "TJiel-a" after its name in Hindostan: *^ Tail-, Doda-taika" 

 in Malabar and further Westwards, " Tek-chetoe " in Teloegoe, 

 "■ Tek-maram" in Tamil. This Tek or Taik is the English 

 " Teak," corrupted in French and German to " Tek." Rum- 

 phius, in 1741 — 1751 transformed the name given to this 

 tree in our Archipelago into •'Jatus" (,<. djnti. jati, caju 

 jati). This word djati came over to Europe and of course 

 in Netherland also, Ka/oe-d jati or ki-djati became Kajoejati- 

 wood, kiati-wood, and lastly kiaten-'hovA, and this word has 

 prevailed hitherto in Dutch. The Hindoo name is " Saqoein " 

 and Saf/oen, modified along the East coast of the Bay of 

 Bengal to Sengon (the same ns.rae thatthe A/iii:zia sli/ntlata 

 bears in Java, the Tijenndjing of the Sundanese); in Borneo 

 it is called " ki-oen," in Cochin China, Cay-Sao, all more or 

 less cognate names; in Siam, were Teysmann made a study 

 of it, (Nat. Tijds. v. Ned. Ind. XXV, 205), -.it is called 

 "Mai/Sah." 



All these dates, the many names so extensively given 

 to the tree, show how much and how long it has attracted 

 the attention, chiefly on account of its great importance 

 for .social and domestic uses, and also for commerce and 

 industry. The area over which it spreads is confined to 

 Hindostan, Further India, and a part the Indian Archipelago; 

 within this area it is confined to certain districts, not being 

 every where met with; at Java, among the rest, with 

 exception of a few small quantities in Banten and the 

 Sunda-lands, only in Middle and East Java, further in the 

 islands situated East of Java as far as Soembawa, included. 

 The Djati of Mindanao, mentioned by Crawford (in Descript. 

 Diction, of the Ind. Islands etc. 1856, p. 428), is apparently 

 to be attributed to confounding it with the above-mentioned 

 less important Tectona Hamiltoniana. The small numbers 

 scattered pretty far over Sumatra, further in Celebes with 

 Saleyer, in Timor, Boeroe, Araboina c. a., Rosengain near 

 Banda. still less in Riouw, Bangka and Borneo, are all 

 owing to a few attempts made at different times, but 

 only partially successful, to introduce and acclimatize this 

 tree, partly of old by the East India Company or private 

 individuals, and lately by our Government.* 



For some time it was thought that this spread was 

 more extensive, and that the Djati occurred also in Africa, 

 on the West coast, whence a kind of wood caUed ■' African 

 Teak," is exported to Europe, chiefly to England, apparently 

 just like the "Indian. Teak" our Djati, but which long 

 deceived the botanists. Brought from the woods of the 

 low-lying interior regions, whose deaiUy malaria exhal- 

 ations preclude aU access to Europeans, "it could only be . 



* The spread of the Djati-tree in Neth. India is circum- 

 stantially treated Chapt. II. p. 165 seqq, of the excellent 

 raonography "The Djati forests in Java" of T. W. H. 

 Cordes, Insp. of the Forests in Neth. India. 



defined from certain leaves, etc., ordered and sent over for 

 the purpose ; but almost with every parcel another set of 

 leaves, blossams, fruits etc. were received. Even now the 

 problem is unsolved, and the only certainty arrived at, was 

 that the African " Teak" is no "Tectona"; probably it is 

 the Oldjieldia Africana, a Euphorbiacea. The wood is, in 

 quality, pretty similar, if any thing, then only a little in- 

 ferior to the Indian Teak or Djati, and is used for the 

 same purposes, principally for the lining of the plates of 

 iron-clads. 



Both for industrial and commercial purposes, the Malabar 

 and Coromandal Ttnk, which supply the buiMing yards 

 of Bombay in British India, are considered the best; then 

 follows the Javau Djati (the supply however is rather in- 

 significant, it might be considerably more), after that the 

 sorts of the Districts Pegoe, Arahan, Moohnain, as the 

 greatest shipping-places — along the East coast of the Bay 

 of Bengal. In Europe, it is England that has the greatest 

 import, and at the same time the only regular mart for 

 Teak-wood. The above-quoted sortings are however not 

 firm, and the fixing of the wood prices depends on the 

 evaluation of each supply. The Teak or Djati wood is 

 namely very different in quality, according to the natiure 

 of the soil on which it is grown; not only in the same 

 tract does this diverge considerably, but even in one and 

 the same small district, according as the tree grows on 

 mountain ridges, inclines, or in valleys, in a sandy soil, 

 or in a loam or lime soil, in rich soft mould growing 

 singly, or in groves, or else in dense forests, thereby 

 showing a finer or closer texture, or a looser and softer 

 body. These deviations are sometimes so marked, as to 

 have suggested the distinguishing of various species, which, 

 after a systematic research, were again abandoned. Eum- 

 phius adopted two sortings — male and female — the dif- 

 ference only appearing in the wood: "that of the male 

 is dark-buff with many longitu<linal stripes, like pine-wood, 

 tough, hard and easily sphttiug, very easy to saw and 

 plane. That of the female is paler and has sparser stripes, 

 softer and rather hairy under the plane, but difficult to 

 saw, and not easily smootheil. Both have a strong bit- 

 terish smell when worked fresh, and an unpleasant taste, 

 the smell remaining long when made into chests and cases. 

 "(Rumph. Amb. Kruidb. lU, 34), Blume, a century later, 

 mentions ten varieties: Djati doeri, soenfloe, komhanff, 

 minjak, koenir, pren(f, ffoair, lenga, kapoei-f, which he col- 

 lectively states as '■^ infirm" . Some of them are of limited 

 local use, and not at all general. The Javan classification 

 is the best. 



1 ° . Djati soenyoe, or horny Djati| a dark chestnut 

 coloured wood, exceedingly firm and equal and free from 

 fibre, the hardest and strongest sort, the best and most 

 used for building-timber, ship-building, etc. and at the same 

 time the most general. 



2 ^ . Djati iem/a or minjak, oily djati, much darker, 

 variegated and striated, in working rather greasy to the 

 touch, so much so that now and then an oily matter in 

 drops of the size of a pin's head exudes from the surface ; 

 thence the n.ame of "!eni/a." This timber, as excellent as 

 the foregoing, but less abundant, is especially in demand 

 for joiners' and cabinet-makers' work ; though rather trouble- 

 some to work. Both these varieties coalesce here and there 

 more southerly towards Central Java. So there they speak 

 only of Djati /eni/n, while the iJjati Soent/oe is with them 

 only a variety from Bembang, known only by tradition. 

 Improved intercourse is bringing a modification in this notion 



3 ° . Djati Kapoer, lime Djati. lighter in colour and softer 

 of grain than the former, brittle and less durable, and its 

 tissues abounding in lime, mostly in a finely dispersed 

 condition, visible as minute crystals between the fibres, 

 sometimes, even frequently, grown into complete calcareous 

 rings (which however occur also occasionally in the darker 

 and firmer wood of the two fore-mentioned varieties), 

 absorbed from the soil, where the tree grew in low-lying, 



t Not all equally recognizable or acceptable. 



I Cordes calls this; Djati Soengoeh, "i.e. true or genuine 

 Djati," but confounds here his Malay. " Loenyoeh " is not 

 a Javan word, nor is it understood in the rural districts. 

 It outdit then to be Djati henei' or temcn, as for instance 

 one of the .favau oaks, "is called I'assanff I'tmr"; but 

 this distinction does not exist for the Javan, to whom 

 all the varieties are real Djati. He called the varieties 

 after the properties of the wood. 



