THE CHIEF TIMBER-TREES OF INDIA. 125 
hard, heavy, and durable kind of timber. The chief of the 
Indian ironwoods are the Pyincapo (Xylia dolabriformis) of 
Burma, the NawOr of Assam, or NacesAr of Bengal (Mesua 
Jerrea), and the ANJAN (Hardwickia binata) of Southern and 
Central India. The Burmese ironwood, Pyincapo, occurs 
abundantly in some parts along with teak, many other deciduous 
trees, and bamboos, in the dry forests of the lower hills, and is, 
next to teak, the most important of the timber-trees of that 
province. Under favourable conditions as to soil and environ- 
ment, it grows to go or roo feet in height and 9g to 12 feet in 
girth, but on poor soil and in uncongenial situation (as in Arakan) 
it remains dwarfish and stunted—a description applying also to 
it in Godavery and the western coast of Madras, where it is also 
indigenous. The reddish-brown to dark brown, close and cross- 
grained, very hard and heavy wood is exceedingly durable, and 
is much prized and largely exported for railway sleepers, the 
Burmese wood being, in this respect, much finer than that grown 
in Southern India, owing to the greater amount of resin con- 
tained in the former. Extracts made from the wood possess good 
tanning properties, and it is quite possible that the sawdust 
and waste wood in conversion might easily be turned into a 
profitable article of export. It produces seed abundantly, and 
seedlings spring up readily where the forests are protected from 
fire. The Anjan of the dry forests of Southern and Central 
India, which also extends northwards into the southern portion of 
the United Provinces (and is found also in tropical Africa), is 
likewise a deciduous tree, but is to be found growing more or 
less gregariously in isolated belts and patches of various extent, 
and usually on sandstone. Its extremely hard and dark-red 
wood, streaked with black and often having a purple tinge, 
has, again like pyingado, its pores filled with resin, which tends 
to increase its weight and durability. It is extremely durable, 
does not warp, and is not liable to split, while it is perhaps the 
hardest and heaviest of all the Indian woods. It is in all 
respects well suited for sleepers, bridge-construction, house- 
building, and ornamental work, but it is too hard and too 
difficult to work to be much in favour among the natives. It 
seeds freely, regenerates itself easily, and coppices well; but the 
seedlings and the shoots thrown up by the roots are killed off 
year after year by hot winds and fires, until finally one is found 
strong enough to withstand these hindrances to normal develop- 
