TEA TEAK. 329 



as usually a year elapses between the felling and its delivery in 

 England, it arrives sufficiently seasoned, heavy, moderately hard, 

 clean even and straight in grain, but little shrunken, split or 

 warped in the process. The rapid drying, however, induced by 

 girdling is said to render the wood inelastic, brittle and less 

 durable, so that it splits too readily for use in gun-carriages. 

 Teak varies very much according to locality and soil, that of 

 Malabar being darker, heavier and rather stronger than, though 

 not so large as, that of Burma. Though without shakes on its 

 outer surface, Teak nearly always has a heart-shake, which, owing 

 to a twist in the growth, may often at the top be at right angles 

 to what it is at the butt, thus seriously interfering with 

 conversion, though often little affecting the use of the timber in 

 bulk. In the large Rangoon or Irraw r addy Teak there is also 

 sometimes a close, fine star-shake. In these shakes an excretion 

 of apatite or phosphate of lime consolidates in white masses, 

 which will turn the edge of most tools. After girdling, the dead 

 trees are often attacked by burrowing insects which may 

 penetrate beyond the sapwood and so render the timber unfit 

 for reduction to plank. Being a deciduous tree, Teak has 

 distinct annual rings, with large and distinct vessels which are 

 rather larger and more numerous in the spring-wood and are 

 sometimes filled with the apatite. The pith-rays are distinct 

 and light -coloured, as in Oak, but fine, the vessels in the spring- 

 wood being 2 3 together between every two rays. Teak splits 

 readily and is easily worked, somewhat like Oak, but it owes its 

 superiority for shipbuilding over both Pine and Oak in part to its 

 freedom from any change of form or warping, when once seasoned, 

 even under the extreme climatic variations of the monsoons. In 

 India, Teak is used for railway-sleepers, bridge building and 

 furniture. As the Indian Forest Department plant several 

 thousand acres annually there is little fear of the exhaustion 

 of the supply, whilst the timber from cultivated trees is said to 

 be better than that grown in the natural forests. Teak is very 

 largely exported, especially from Moulmein and Rangoon, that 

 from the former port, drawn from the valleys of the Salwen and 



