FINE TIMBER-TREES. 135 



have now to add that there are few families which furnish 

 more useful vegetables for the service of mankind. Here 

 we find many gums and resins, many plants whose pods 

 or seeds constitute a nourishing diet, or from their astrin- 

 gency are sought after by the tanner and the dier. The in- 

 digo, one of the most useful of all dies, is yielded by Indi- 

 gofera Indka. Some of our best timber is obtained from 

 trees belonging to this family ; and, where no striking prop- 

 erty has been discovered, the exquisite beauty of many 

 others entitles them to our attention and admiration. Some 

 of the finest leguminose timber-trees are perhaps to be 

 found in the genus Dalbergia. Roxburgh describes D. 

 latifolia as one of the largest mountain-trees of the penin- 

 sula. The wood is known by the name of blachcood, and 

 is of a grayish black with light-coloured veins, so heavy as 

 to sink in water, close-grained, and admitting of the highest 

 poUsh, which renders it highly esteemed for furniture. Dr. 

 Roxburgh mentions having seen planks of it from the Mal- 

 abar coast full three feet and a half broad ; and allowing 

 nine inches of white wood to have been on the outside, the 

 circumference must have been fifteen feet, exclusive of the 

 bark. Equally useful, and possessing the advantage of 

 being one of the quickest-growing timber-trees in the world, 

 is Dalbergia Cissu. This wood, we are informed by Dr. 

 Wallich, has no rival for purposes where toughness and 

 elasticity are required to be combined. It does not splinter 

 when penetrated or perforated by a cannon-ball. Through- 

 out Hindostan the naves, felloes, and spokes of gun-carriage- 

 wheels are made of it in preference to any other. In the 

 navy it is chiefly excellent for what are called crooked-tim- 

 bers. For all these purposes it attains a sufficient size in 

 thirty-five or forty years : this is proved by several trees 

 which were planted in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta in 

 the year 1796, and wliich have now an elevation of eighty 

 to a hundred feet, and a circumference of fourteen feet. 

 D. Cissu is found only in the north of Hindostan, and in 

 point of geographical extension, we are assured by Dr. 

 Wallich, is one of the most limited species we know of. 

 At the ^same time it is abundantly prolific in throwing up 

 saplings ; but though a forest produced in this way looks 

 more promising than any other, the wood produced by sap- 

 ling-timber is much inferior, and the greatest caution is 



