JUNGLES IN CENTRAL INDIA 267 



is a considerable quantity* unoccupied by villages, to 

 be devastated by the cutting of the best trees and the 

 burning of charcoal. The price of timber for use in 

 house building and for firing was, in the Jhansi and 

 Lalitpur cantonments, exceedingly high, and even hallis 

 or poles, used in the villages for all purposes, were 

 very dear and almost unprocurable. There is a great 

 quantity of iron ore in the districts, which was formerly 

 worked by the native lohars. This accounts for the 

 scarcity of timber in a country which is one-third jungle. 

 The native rajahs were more careful of their forest 

 rights, and preserved the teak and sissoo and other 

 useful timbers carefully, so that in the Orchha jungles 

 there were plenty of fine trees ; and no doubt could be 

 entertained that only conservation was needed to restore 

 considerable areas of natural forest, now cut down, to a 

 state of valuable timber production. 



Trees in this climate, where great heat and an immense 

 rainfall characterize the six summer months, grow very 

 rapidly, and, if left alone, increase to immense size, as 

 witness the enormous fruit-trees near villages and the 

 sacred banians and pipal-trees. On the rocky ridges 

 which rise out of the alluvial plain, crossing the country 

 mostly in a north-easterly and south-westerly direction, 

 excellent kinds of hard -wood timbers grow naturally, 

 and only require to be given a chance. Ebony {abnus)'f 

 rosewood {siassa),^ and sinse,§ besides saj, mahua, and 

 kahua, are indigenous, and teak would grow freely every- 

 where. Bamboos of several sorts, solid ones 12 feet long, 

 and hollow large ones 30 feet and up to 70 feet long some- 



* Jhansi district, 1,029,295 acres, of which 385,723 acres are waste 

 land, including 57,862 forest, 

 t Diospyros vielanoxylon. 

 % Dalbergia latifolia. 

 § Dalbergia oojainensis. 



