34 WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS, 
It grows wild over a great park of British India; in 
the mouiitiiinou!3 districts along the ifalabar coast, ia 
Gus^rat, the valley of the Nerbucldah, in Tenasserim and 
Pegu. Unlike the oalc and fir forests of Enrope, where 
large spaces of ground are covered by a single species, the 
teak forests of India are composed of a great variety of trees, 
among which the teak itself does nob even preLlominate. 
After a long neglect, which, in some parts, had almost 
caased its total extii-pation, Government has at length 
taken steps for its more effectual protection, and appointed 
experienced foresters to watch over this invaluable tree. 
Since 1843, millions of young plants have been raised 
from seeds, but unfortunately the teak is of as slow 
growth as our oak, and many years will still be necessary 
to repair the minous improvidence of the past. 
On tarning oar attention to America we find that 
Nature, delighting in infinite varieties of develop :nent, 
find disdaining a servile copy of wliab she had elsewhere 
formed, covers the earth with new and no less remarkable 
forms of vegetation. Thus, while in Africa tlie baobab 
attracts the traveller's attention by its colossal size and 
peculiarity of growth, the gigantic Ceiba, belonging to the 
same family of plants, raises his astonish ment in the 
forests of Yucatan. Like the baobab, this noble tree 
rises only to a moderate height of sixty feet, bnt its 
trunk swells to such dimensions that fifteen men are 
hardly able to span it, while a thousand may easily screen 
themselves under its canopy from the scorching sun. The 
leaves fall off in January ; and then at the end of every 
branch bunches of large, glossy, purple -red flowers make 
their appearance, affording, as one may well imagine, a 
magnificent sight, 
fii British Honduras the Mahogany tree is found 
scattered in the forest, attracting the woodman's atten- 
tion from a distance by its light-coloured foliage and its 
magnificent growth. Such are its dimensions, and such 
is the value of peculiarly fine epecimensj that in October 
