CHAPTER XXI. 



ASIATIC TIMBERS— INDIA AND BURMAH — {Continued). 



The Pyengadu, or Iron-wood* tree of Pegu and Arrow- 

 can, the Xylia dolabriformis of the botanists, is a species 

 allied to the Acacias, of straight growth, found in the 

 Burmese South Indian forests, and also in the country 

 occupied by the Karens, towards Western China, where 

 it is often seen rising to 70 or 80 feet clear of branches, 

 and of very large circumference. It yields timber in the 

 log 12 to 24 and even 30 inches square, and of great 

 lengths. 



The wood is of a reddish-brown colour, hard, heavy, 

 tough, strong, rigid, and frequently possesses some figure 

 in the grain, which has the appearance of being both 

 waved and twisted ; its pores are filled with a remark- 

 ably thick glutinous, oily substance, which oozes out 



* Iron-wood is a name loosely applied, for obvious reasons, to many different 

 timbers in various parts of the world ; perhaps the name is best deserved by the 

 species of Sideroxylon, but it is also given to species of Diospyros and Metro- 

 sidtros. The following are the chief examples of trees of other genera which go 

 by this name in different countries : Burmah, Xylia dolabriformis ; India and 

 Ceylon, Mesua ferrea, ; Australia, Acacia stenophylla, species of Eucalyptus, 

 MelaUnca, Myrtus, Notelcca, &c. In North America species of Oshya and 

 Olneya go under this name ; in Natal, Oka laurifolia and Toddalia lanceolata ; 

 in the Straits Settlements and Borneo the Billian is so called. The Iron-wood of 

 Persia is Parrotia persica ; that of the West Indies Sloanea jamaicensis and 

 species of Pagaria. That of British Honduras is Laplacea Hcematoxylon. 



