432 SOCIETY OF ARTS CONFERENCE. [April 



of camphor, aud in Australia it was found to be efficacious 

 in fever ; but the secret simply was that the trees dried up the 

 swampy ground. In India it grew at an elevation above where 

 fever prevailed. As to the quality of teak in the Nilambur 

 plantation, grown at only 600 to 700 feet above the sea-level, some 

 timber had been sent down to the gun-carriage manufactory and 

 tested, aud though there was no doubt that it was inferior to the 

 teak of the mountains, still it was excellent timber. Teak in 

 Bombay would not grow in the plains, because there was a longer 

 drought. Down in Malabar, Travancore, and Cochin there were 

 two monsoons and a heavy rainfall, and the teak grew splendidly. 

 Most of the teak in Madras was on the mountains, 1500 to 2000 

 feet elevation ; still, very often indigenous teak was found in 

 Travancore, down within 200 or 300 feet above the sea-level, and 

 he had seen specimens from 10 to 12 feet in girth. Van Eheede, 

 who was a botanist and Governor of Malabar at the end of the 

 iVth century, published a large botanical work, in which he 

 mentioned the teak and its hahiiat, and spoke of it as growing usque 

 ad Ccdicutam ; but since he had known those forests there had been 

 no teak anywhere near Calicut. The sole reason for girdling the 

 trees in Burmah was to enable the logs to float, as this process 

 reduced the weight seven or eight pounds per cubic foot. In no 

 part of India had he known this process practised, and the Bombay 

 Dockyard would not take teak which was girdled ; they paid 2s. per 

 cubic foot less for Burmah teak in the log than for Malabar teak. 

 The girdling took place just before the hot weather. Jarrah 

 timber was largely sent to India for sleepers, but he never heard 

 that it was impervious to white ants, though it was to the sea-worm. 

 White ants would eat anything. He had known the bottom of a 

 deal box eaten through in a night ; but teak, being so much 

 harder, was not readily attacked until it began to deteriorate by the 

 weather. Teak was not used for sleepers, simply because it was too 

 expensive. With regard to its inflammability, no wood in the forest 

 burnt so readily when fresh cut. When first cut it was full of 

 oil, and a few leaves would set fire to it, and he recollected the 

 Chairman having a large stack of teak timber burnt aud entirely 

 destroyed. 



Mr. Martin Wood said teak sleepers were used years ago in India, 

 and would be continued but for the expense. Jarrah he had heard 

 was very serviceable, but apt to shake. In future he believed that 

 steel sleepers would take the place of iron, as being much more 

 durable. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer agreed Avith Colonel Beddome that the 

 Eucalyphis had no special medicinal properties. Still, a plantation 



