THE CHIEF TIMBER-TREES OF INDIA. I21 
produce the dark brown colour of sail-cloths, fishing-nets, etc. 
The wood is a splendid timber, which takes a fine polish and is 
extremely durable, defying both white ants and the teredo. The 
only reason of its not being very extensively used as timber is 
the unfortunate fact that it does not grow to large dimensions. 
The cutch-tree is common in the lower deciduous forests of most 
parts of India and Burma where the rainfall is moderate. In 
Burma its distribution extends very little above the tropic line, 
but in Upper India it spreads to the sub-Himalayan tracts west 
of the Indus, and there ascends the valleys to a height of about 
3000 feet. There are three distinct varieties of this tree, in 
which the calyx, petals, and rachis of the leaves are respectively 
hairy, downy, and smooth. The hairy variety is that common 
to the dry regions of Upper and Central India, but rare in 
Burma; the downy kind is that found chiefly in the much 
moister locality of Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, and Burma; while 
the smooth variety is confined to the arid regions of the Deccan, 
Carnatic, Rajputana, Western India, and the dry zone of Upper 
Burma. In India the khair or light red variety is found, both 
sporadically and also more or less gregariously, interspersed 
among the other deciduous trees characteristic of the dry forests. 
When gregarious, it is usually found—like the Sissoo, though 
seldom growing along with it—on newly raised banks in beds of 
streams issuing from the mountain ranges, down which the seed- 
pods are borne by the waters, and get lodged among the sand 
and boulders of the freshly deposited banks and islands. Such 
river-bed khair forests seldom show any natural regeneration, as 
they are liable to be washed away by floods, consequently the 
trees can be freely felled whenever of marketable dimensions for 
kath-boiling. The new growths springing up spontaneously on 
fresh silt-deposits require no treatment except protection against 
grazing, as they soon thin themselves sufficiently, and need to be 
kept fairly dense in order to prevent erosion of the soil. In 
Burma the growth of the sa tree, yielding the dark-coloured 
wood, is more usually sporadic than gregarious, though in some 
of the forests of the Prome and Thayetmyo districts, and in the 
southern part of Upper Burma, in the zone having an average 
rainfall of from about 40 or 45 to 55 or 60 inches a year, it 
forms a considerable proportion of the trees found in certain 
localities. In these districts cutch-boiling forms an important 
rural industry, and in years of scanty rainfall additional facilities 
