128 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



of (rethsemane were full-grown when the Saracens were expelled 

 from Jerusalem, and the cypress of Somma in Lombardy is said 

 to have been a tree in the time of Julius Caesar. Yet the Bo- 

 tree is older than the oldest of these by a century, and would 

 almost seem to verify the prophecy pronounced when it was 

 planted, that it would ' flourish and be green for ever.' * 



Although far inferior to these wonders of the vegetable world 

 in amplitude of growth, yet the Teak tree, or Indian oak {Tec- 

 tona grandis), far surpasses them in value, as the ship-worm 

 in the water, and the termite on land, equally refrain from 

 attacking its close-grained strongly scented wood ; and no 

 timber equals it for ship-building purposes. 



It grows wild over a great part of British India ; in the moun- 

 tainous districts along the Malabar coast, in Gruzerat, the valley 

 of the Nerbuddah, in Tenasserim and Pegu. Unlike the oak and 

 fir forests of Europe, where large spaces of ground are covered 

 by a single species, the teak forests of India are composed of a 

 great variety of trees, among which the teak itself does not even 

 predominate. After a long neglect, which, in some parts, had 

 almost caused its total extirpation, Grovernment has at length 

 taken steps for its more effectual protection, and appointed 

 experienced foresters to watch over this invaluable tree. Since 

 1843, millions of young plants have been raised from seeds, 

 but unfortunately the teak is of as slow growth as our oak, and 

 many years will still be necessary to repair the ruinous impro- 

 vidence of the past. 



On turning our attention to America we find that Nature, 

 delighting in infinite varieties of development, and disdaining a 

 servile copy of what she had elsewhere formed, covers the earth 

 with new and no less remarkable forms of vegetation. Thus, 

 while in Africa the baobab attracts the traveller's attention by 

 its colossal size and peculiarity of growth, the gigantic Ceiba 

 {Bomhax Ceiba), belonging to the same family of plants, raises 

 his astonishment in the forests of Yucatan. Like the baobab, 

 this noble tree rises only to a moderate height of sixty feet, but 

 its trunk swells to such dimensions that fifteen men are hardly 

 able to span it, while a thousand may easily screen themselves 

 under its canopy from the scorching sun. The leaves fall off 



* Tennent's 'Ceylon,' vol. ii. pp. 6U, 618. 



