INDIA, BUEMA, AND ANDAMAN ISLANDS 161 



and will carry considerable weights. Bamboo is the chief 

 undergrowth of teak in the Burmese forests. 

 Weight from 25 to 45 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



The Babool or Babul (Acacia arabica), a species of acacia, 

 is one of the chief products of the forests of Scinde and 

 seldom attains a greater height than 30 to 38 ft. or greater 

 diameter than 2 ft. Called Babbar in Scinde and Keekar in 

 the Punjab. It is a rapid-growing tree, requires little or 

 no water, and thrives in poor soil ; is common on the 

 lower Ganges, in the Deccan and Carnatic, and is largely 

 cultivated in the Punjab. There are two varieties, pale 

 red and white, so called from the colours of the wood ; the 

 former is the most valuable, having a heartwood of light 

 red inclining to reddish brown after exposure, and often 

 mottled with dark streaks ; it is a close-grained, tough, 

 hard wood of great durability. It is much used for cart 

 wheels and ploughshares and beams for roofing, and also 

 used for boat-building and occasionally for sleepers. 

 Admirably adapted for tent pegs owing to its toughness 

 and hardness combined with lightness ; it resists the white 

 ant, but is liable to attack from a boring beetle. In some 

 districts the wood is made into charcoal. Medullary rays 

 are fine and moderately broad and conspicuous. 



Weight about 54 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Tamarind (Tamarindus indica), found chiefly on hard, 

 dry soils, never on hilly or rocky ground, grows and is 

 cultivated in India, Burma, and Ceylon, and is one of the 

 finest of Indian trees both for size and beauty. The wood 

 of the young tamarind is much used for doorways, wheels, 

 mallets, planes, rice pounders, etc., and also for furniture, 

 but is liable to attack from worms if not well seasoned ; it 

 is hard and close but of crooked grain ; not fitted for roofs, 



T. M 



