20 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Besides its value as timber, the teak has great 

 beauty as a tree. It is found more than two hundred 

 feet high, and the stem, the branches, and the leaves 

 are all very imposing. On the banks of the river 

 Irrawaddy, in the Birman empire, the teak forests 

 are unrivalled ; and they rise so far over the jungle 

 or brushwood, by which tropical forests are usually 

 rendered impenetrable, that they seem almost as if 

 one forest were raised on gigantic poles over the top 

 of another. The teak has not the broad strength of 

 the oak, the cedar, and some other trees; but there is 

 a grace in its form which they do not possess 



Teak Teotona grandis. 



