304 A DESCRIPTION OF THE 



tree feems to be mod replete with it. Such an opera- 

 tion, indeed, would probably diminifh its produce in 

 the fruit and flower ; but, where it was fufficiently 

 cultivated, the lofs in thofe could be but little felt. 



The wood, from what has been already faid of it, 

 cannot be expected to be often had in beams of any 

 confiderable length, fo as to make it fo very ufeful in 

 building, as it would otherwife be, from its not being 

 liable to be eat by the white ants. Mr. Keir, however, 

 tells me that, when he was at Chowfee, (a village upon 

 the Caramnajfa, near Buxar,) he had beams of it, which 

 were, to the belt of his remembrance, above twenty feet 

 long. But in many other refpecls it is a molt ufeful 

 wood; and, as it is tough, and of a ftrong texture, it 

 might, perhaps, be employed to advantage in fhip- 

 building, in which cafe, if properly cultivated in many 

 grounds that feem well adapted for it, and fit for little 

 elfe, it might thus in time become a valuable article 

 in that branch at Calcutta, whither it could eafily be 

 tranfported during the rainy feafon, from almoft any 

 part of thefe countries, by feveral rivers that are then 

 fufficiently full to float it down. 



The tree, I am told, will grow in the mod barren 

 ground, even amongft Hones and gravel, where there 

 is the leaft appearance of a foil ; and it feems to deftroy 

 all the (mailer trees and brufhwood about it; yet it 

 does not refufe a rich foil either : Mr. Keir having ob- 

 ferved to me, that the few he had feen about Buxar, 

 where it is certainly very good, were both taller, and 

 feemed to thrive much better, than any he had ever met 

 within Ra?ngur. It does not require much moijlurejcem- 

 ing to produce nearly as well in thedrieft as in moft favor- 

 able years ; and in every fituation ; and is therefore admir- 

 ably fitted for the convenience of the inhabitants of thefe 



hilly 



