INDIA, BUEMA, AND ANDAMAN ISLANDS 161 
and will carry considerable weights. Bamboo is the chief 
undergrowth of teak in the Burmese forests. 
Weight from 25 to 45 lbs. per cubic foot. 
The Babool or Babul {Acacia arahica), a species of acacia, 
is one of the chief products of the forests of Scinde and 
seldom attains a greater height than 30 to 38 ft. or greater 
diameter than 2 ft. Called Babbar in Scinde andKeekar in 
the Punjab. It is a rapid-growing tree, requires little or 
no water, and thrives in poor soil ; is common on the 
lower Ganges, in the Deccan and Carnatic, and is largely 
cultivated in the Panjab. There are two varieties, pale 
red and white, so called from the colours of the wood ; the 
former is the most valuable, having a heartwood of light 
red inclining to reddish brown after exposure, and often 
mottled with dark streaks ; it is a close-grained, tough, 
hard wood of great durability. It is much used for cart 
wheels and ploughshares and beams for roofing, and also 
used for boat-building and occasionally for sleepers. 
Admirably adapted for tent pegs owing to its toughness 
and hardness combined with lightness ; it resists the white 
ant, but is liable to attack from a boring beetle. In some 
districts the wood is made into charcoal. Medullary rays 
are fine and moderately broad and conspicuous. 
Weight about 54 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Tamarind {Tamarindus indica), found chiefly on hard, 
dry soils, never on hilly or rocky ground, grows and is 
cultivated in India, Burma, and Ceylon, and is one of the 
finest of Indian trees both for size and beauty. The wood 
of the young tamarind is much used for doorways, wheels, 
mallets, planes, rice pounders, etc., and also for furniture, 
but is liable to attack from worms if not well seasoned ; it 
is hard and close but of crooked grain ; not fitted for roofs, 
T. M 
