CHAPTER II 

 THE PRINCIPAL TIMBER TREES 



THE forested regions of China are to-day remote from 

 the populous parts of the country, and are only to be 

 found in the more wildly mountainous parts, which are 

 little suited to agriculture, and where the rivers are unnavigable 

 rock-strewn torrents, and roads, as such, can scarcely be said 

 to exist. Such districts are always at considerable elevation 

 and are but sparsely peopled. In all the more accessible 

 regions agriculture has claimed the land, and the trees are 

 only met with around houses, temples, tombs, stream-sides, 

 or crowning cliffs. The scarcity of timber is acutely felt 

 throughout the length and breadth of the land. Dressed 

 logs and poles are carried long distances to navigable water- 

 ways and floated either down or up-stream, consequently 

 their cost is high. The ports on the sea-board and lower 

 Yangtsze import timber in quantity for general construction 

 purposes from Puget Sound and British Columbia. A certain 

 amount also comes from Japan. Hardwoods for miscellaneous 

 purposes are imported from various parts of Malaysia, and a 

 certain amount of Jarrah wood for railway work has recently 

 been sent from Australia. The famous blackwood furniture 

 of China is not made of native wood, but of timber imported 

 from Bangkok, Saigon, and other places in Indo-China. 

 Botanically the source of " Chinese blackwood" is unknown. 

 The so-called " Bombay blackwood " is derived from Dalbergia 

 latifolia, and possibly the " Chinese " kind is from a closely 

 allied species. Western China is rather better off for timber 

 than other parts of China, and fortunately so, since the 

 importation of timber as a business is utterly impossible. 

 Nevertheless there is a great dearth of wood for building 

 purposes, and timber prices have doubled during the^ last 



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