DOCKYAED TIMBER* 



The growing importance of Indian forests to the British Go- 

 vernment gives practical value to all efforts made to ascertain 

 the quantity and quality of the timber which they yield. In the 

 preceding list of woods, p. 225, reference is made to Angili 

 {Artocarpus Mrsuta), and also an allusion to the circumstance 

 that the supply of this wood for ship-building purposes to H. M. 

 Dockyards has formed a subject of correspondence. On 19th 

 April 1860, the following Memorandum was furnished to Govern- 

 ment by me : — 



" 1. When travelling on the western coast, I took every means 

 of ascertaining the quantity of angili timber procurable. With a 

 view to obtain the fullest information, I addressed the Eesident 

 of Travancore, the Collector of Malabar, and the Assist. Conser- 

 vator of Forests in N. Canara. Their replies having now come 

 to hand, I beg to submit a summary of them. The communica- 

 tion of Mr Maltby and its enclosures I annex entire, being full 

 of interest. 



" 2. Tree — Localities where procurable. — The tree Artocarpus 

 Mrsuta of botanists is of great size. It is confined to the W. 

 coast, and is particularly abundant at an elevation of 3000 ft. in 

 Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore, where it is much used for 

 canoes, ferry-boats, and house-building. In habit, it resembles 

 the jak tree, to which it is allied. The Dutch governor of 

 Cochin, Henricus von Bheede, figured the tree in his Hortus 

 Malabaricus (1686), and praisedf the timber. In Canara, the tree 



* Under Shipbuilding, Strength of Materials, and Timber, much 

 information will be found — (Ency. Brit., 1861.) 

 t Vol. in., t. 32. 



