210 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
the timber promises to be useful. Ava is not 
the natural country of firs, nor do I believe any 
tree of the pine family has been discovered to 
exist in any part of the country. Among the 
most useful products of the Burman forests may 
be named the bamboo, which, in the lower parts 
of the country, grows to an extraordinary size; 
occasionally, indeed, to the girth of twenty-three 
or twenty-four inches, so that joints of it make 
convenient vessels for drawing water from wells, 
and similar domestic uses. The Mimosa catechu, 
a tree rising to the height of thirty and forty 
feet, is very generally disseminated both in the 
forests of the upper and lower provinces. This 
affords the catechu or terra japonica, which in the 
Malay countries is yielded by a very different 
plant, the Uncaria gambir . From the mimosa 
the drug is obtained by boiling the wood cut 
down into chips and inspissating the produce. 
This rude manufacture is carried on throughout 
the country; but the produce of the upper pro¬ 
vinces is clearer in colour, and finer, than that of 
the lower. The article is much used in the 
country, and largely exported, particularly to 
Bengal. The timber of the Mimosa catechu, 
which is often of large scantling, and that of 
other species of the same genus, all of which are 
strong, tough, and durable, are much employed 
for economical purposes, such as in the fabrication 
of ploughs, harrows, &c. Another useful produce 
