TIMBER IN BRITISH DOCKYARDS. 137 



view; after taking considerable pains to consider this 

 question impartially, from every aspect, we feel bound 

 to say that in our humble judgment, the trees of the 

 temperate zone, as timber, are finer, more useful, and 

 more valuable, generally, than those of the tropics 

 but time and space will only admit of reviewing 

 this question very briefly. 



British naval experiences in this matter seem to us 

 conclusive, as in our dockyards immense pains and 

 expenses have been taken, to give a fair trial to 

 every kind of tree, and to obtain the very best timber 

 that the world can produce. And now taking a 

 few of the most valuable of the tropical trees: for 

 instance the teak (Tectona Grandis], we find that this 

 tree attains a height of i oo feet, with a circumference 

 of 10 feet, and yields timber in the log up to 50 feet 

 long and 30 inches square, in extreme cases. * 



Then there is mahogany (Swietenia] the largest 

 kind, though perhaps not the best, from a cabinet- 

 maker's point of view, is the Mexican mahogany, which 

 yields legs up to 30 feet long and 4 feet square, f 

 Also we may mention "Pyengadu," or Burmese Iron 

 wood, giving logs of 30 inches square and of great 

 length and the greenheart (Nectandra Rodicei) found 

 in Guinea, a valuable timber, perfectly straight, and 

 producing logs up to 50 feet in length by 24 inches 

 square. ** 



There we have what are probably the largest and 

 finest examples of tropical timbers. We do not now 



* Timber and Timber Trees, by Thomas Laslett, Timber Inspector 

 to the Admiralty, 1875, p. 113. 

 f Ibid., p. 177 78. 

 Ibid., p. 129. 

 ** Ibid., p. 151. 



