138 IMPERFECTIONS OF TROPICAL TIMBERS. 



speak of the many and valuable cabinet-maker's woods, 

 which are mostly of small size, and prized mainly for 

 the beauty of their colour and grain- nor yet of dye 

 woods, nor medicinal products we simply regard the 

 tropical trees as timber, and what are they compared 

 to the timber trees of the temperate zone? We shall 

 furnish the reader with some technical details upon 

 this head presently.. 



But there is another matter which we can by no 

 means pass over in silence, and that is the general 

 tendency of tropical woods to crack and shrink, and 

 to develop what is technically known as " heart-shake " 

 and "star-shake" which greatly detracts from the 

 value of their timber, though it must be confessed that 

 all timber is more or less liable to blemishes of this 

 kind, but it is exhibited in greater degree in tropical 

 than in other woods. 



Let us take a single instance, that of teak perhaps 

 the most valuable of all timbers for certain purposes. 

 Mr. Laslett, a high authority on such matters, states 

 that 



" It is characteristic of Rangoon Teak " (one of the most 

 valuable kinds) " to be shaky at the centre, there being be- 

 side the heart-shake, which is common more or less to teak 

 timber, a close fine star-shake, which is seriously detrimental 

 to its value." * "Many of the logs" (he continues) "cannot 

 on this account be converted into boards or planks, without 

 incurring a very considerable loss." f 



And so we might go on to show how this is the 

 case with nearly all tropical timbers, in a greater 

 degree than is met with in those of the temperate 



Timber and Timber Trees, by Thos. Laslett, 1875, p. n 

 Ibid., p. 122. 



