THE TEAK KEGION. 201 



level portions of the country have long been cleared of jungle 

 for purposes of cultivation, and for a long way around these 

 settlements the forests have been hacked down into mere 

 scrub for the common requirements in timber and fuel of 

 the people. The outer slopes of the plateau, towards the 

 lower plains, have also been long ago swept of all valuable 

 teak ; and, moreover, from their sterile nature, have pro- 

 bably at no time produced any large quantity of timber. 

 Even in the higher and more secluded tracts, where forests 

 of teak yet remain, the causes already referred to have 

 now reduced the number of mature and well-grown trees 

 to a very small proportion of the whole, so small that 

 in few places are there more remaining than will suffice to 

 reproduce the forests by their seed in ' a period of fifty to a 

 hundred years. Everywhere the teak grows very much in 

 patches intermixed with other species, the principal hard- 

 woods of which in these forests are the Saj (Pentaptera), 

 the Bijasal (Pterocarpus), the Dhaora (Conocarpus), and in a 

 few localities the Anjan (Hardwickia). Many other species 

 have been observed, of which a list will be found in an 

 Appendix, 



The mature teak tree of Central India attains a girth of 

 from ten to fifteen feet, with a boll of seventy or eighty feet 

 to the head of branches. Perfect specimens are, however, rare, 

 the majority of such trees as remain having suffered injury 

 in the sapling stage from fire or axe, so as to permanently 

 contort their form. The soft scaly bark, large flabby leaves, 

 and generally straggling and "seedy" habit of growth of the 

 teak, are certainly, I think, disappointing to those accustomed 

 to the trim firm aspect of other hardwood forests, and parti- 

 cularly to such as have had the opportunity of comparing it 

 with the striking appearance of the evergreen Sal forests of 



