Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/137

XX.] from the moisture lodging in the ruptured parts, are not unfrequent in it.

The Laingbooe Teak has a most peculiar growth, and deviates strangely from the ordinary cylindrical form, in having its stem twisted and deeply grooved, or fluted. It consequently takes a tree of rather large size to yield a small straight square log, and when obtained it is but an indifferent one, owing to the fibre of the grain having been cut and weakened by the hewing of an irregular iorm or shape into a regular one. In colour this wood is rather darker than any of the others, and it is also considerably harder and heavier.

The Irrawaddy or Rangoon Teak timber is of a pale yellow colour, very closely resembling the Thoungyeen Teak of the Moulmein district in its uniformity of texture, and in having a long straight grain. It is a clean free kind of wood, with the centre commonly softer and more spongy than the outer annual layers. In consequence of this it cuts transversely, with a coarseness and fluffiness of surface near the pith which is remarkable; this, I consider, may be taken as indicative of poorness or inferiority in the quality.

It is also characteristic of the Rangoon or Irrawaddy Teak to be shaky at the centre, there being, besides the heart-shake, which is common more or less to Teak timber, a close, fine, star-shake, radiating from the pith, which is seriously detrimental to its value. Many of the logs cannot, therefore, on this account be converted into planks and boards without incurring a very considerable