Tectona.] LX. VEKBENACE^. 359 



On the Anamallays Beddome records trees with a girth of about 22 ft., and 

 a straight trunk of some 80 or 90 ft. to the first bough. In the North Canara 

 forests clear stems 70-80 ft. long are not rare ; in the Ahiri forests, lat. 19 30', 

 Col. Pearson reports stems 60-70 ft. high ; and even considerably farther north 

 in the Khandeish Dangs, lat. 20 45', I have measured clear stems 60-70 ft. long to 

 the first branch. Teak attains a large diameter, girths of 10-15 ft. are not un- 

 common, and numerous instances of 20-25 ft. are on record. The forest tracts, 

 however, in India which now contain Teak of such dimensions, are neither 

 numerous nor extensive. The Teak forests richest in large timber on the west 

 side of the Peninsula are the Travancore, Anamallay, Wynaad, South- West 

 Mysore, and North Canara forests. The Dangs at the foot of the Khandeish 

 Ghats also have a considerable quantity of large timber. In the centre of the 

 Peninsula are the Godavery forests, of which Ahiri, east of the Pranhita river, 

 near the foot of the third barrier, is the most compact and valuable. 



In British Burma, the sandstone hills of the Pegu Yomah, the outer valleys 

 on both sides of the mountain-range which separates the Sitang and Salween 

 rivers, and the Thoungyeen valley, contain the best Teak localities. Teak, 

 however, is far more abundant beyond the frontier, in Burma proper on the 

 tributaries of the Irawaddi, and the headwaters of the Sitang river, in the 

 Karenee country, the Shan States tributary to Burma, and in Siam on the 

 feeders of the Salween, Thoungyeen, and Meinam rivers. 



It is estimated that the Teak plantations of Burma, when mature, will contain 

 at the age of 80 years about 60 trees per acre, measuring on an average 6 ft. in 

 girth, and yielding 3000 cub. ft. of marketable timber, which, with the thinnings, 

 is expected to amount to a mean annual yield of 47 cub. ft. per acre (Keport on 

 the revised plan of working the Burma forests of Feb. 1868). The natural Teak 

 forests, not being pure or compact, do not distantly approach to this yield. As 

 an instance of a particularly rich forest, I may quote Col. Pearson's survey of 

 a sample acre in Ahiri, stocked with 18 large trees, containing an aggregate 

 of 22 tons, or 1100 cub. ft. of timber. Most of these trees, however, were pro- 

 bably more than two centuries old. The following figures, taken from official 

 reports, illustrate the average quantity of Teak standing on the ground in forest 

 tracts which are fairly well stocked : , , . 



A portion of the Ahiri forests (on the hills) contains Teak, Blackwood {Dal- 

 bergia latifolia) and Bamboos only ; the forests in Burma contain a variety of 

 trees besides Teak and Bamboo. 



A great proportion of the Teak on the Kymore and Satpura ranges consists 

 only of coppice-wood. The same may be said of most Teak forests on the dry 

 hills of the Dekkan, and of the Konkan Teak forests a great portion consists 

 of coppice- woods. Teak has great powers of reproduction, it coppices vigorously, 

 and the shoots grow with great rapidity, much more rapidly at first than seed- 

 lings. This great power of reproduction is another point which favours Teak in 

 its struggle of existence against other trees, for most Teak seedlings which come 

 up naturally are cut down to the ground by the jungle-fires of the hot season : 

 some are killed, but many sprout again during the rains ; and though they are 

 cut down repeatedly by the fires of successive seasons, yet meanwhile the root 



