52 LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS. 



may be true when all the Teak trees have been cut over and 

 burnt, but I have known instances where Teak trees having 

 been left in the clearing, the ground, in a few years, after- 

 wards was covered with Teak seedlings. I also remarked 

 in one particular instance that in a "Tukkul" clearing, all 

 the young Teak trees had been ruthlessly cut over by the 

 Curumbers, but owing to the fire not having been a severe 

 one, or the clearing having been abandoned before fire came 

 in, every tree had thrown out a shoot, and when I saw it 

 in 1860, it looked like a regular plantation, the cut in the 

 bole could be distinctly traced, every tree was drawn up as 

 straight as an arrow, and they appeared about thirty years 

 old. The Teak has some enemies, for instance, I have already 

 shewn how rats and squirrels destroy the seeds when planted 

 in beds, sometimes mealy bug attacks the tap roots, and 

 one year I lost twenty thousand plants from this cause the 

 cure is, plenty of ashes in the beds. Elephants sometimes 

 destroy the trees by walking through a plantation. Sambur 

 also by rubbing their horns against the young trees, do con- 

 siderable damage, monkeys jumping from tree to tree, break 

 the tops. Colonel Beddoine, in his Forest Report for 1869- 

 70, page 4i, mentions a small area of superb Teak, nine feet 

 in girth and sixty to seventy feet high. He states that the 

 Teak has not spread, this only exemplifies what I have 

 stated before that Teak does not spread, that in fact to even 

 hold its own, it requires peculiar conditions. The Teak 

 seems to have been found in the Golcondah Taluq of Viza- 

 gapatam, at an elevation of two thousand feet. 



Black wood, This tree attains a vast size on the Anamallies, Wynaad, 



Latifdia* an ^ ^he s ^P es ^ tne Neilgherries above Nellumbore, planks 



three feet in diameter are not uncommon, it is considered by 

 the natives to be stronger than Teak, and is generally used 

 in parts where a considerable strain is to be met, it is of slower 

 growth than Teak, and has the same peculiarity of drawing 

 up lime from the soil, especially where the bark has been 

 injured. The demand for this wood in Bombay is very 

 considerable, being in great requisition for the carved 



