Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/152

132 reddish in colour, but rather paler than the Padouk. There is also the Thingan (Hopea species), a wood heavier than Teak, and which lasts under water far better. It grows abundantly on the Tavay coast and islands.

The above are all very compact woods, close and fine in texture, of good quality, and no doubt durable. They have long been in use in Burmah, and in the Madras Presidency, and are fit and suitable for use in works of construction, but, up to the present time, they are scarcely known in this country.

Of a less useful character, but still of some value, is the Thitkado, the Toon of India, a kind of bastard Cedar, which yields timber 11 to 26 inches square, and 14 to 40 feet in length.

The wood is of a pale red colour, clean and straight in the grain, moderately hard, and not difficult to work. It is not mild enough for.pattern-making, but, for general purposes in the domestic arts, it might be used in lieu of the better kinds of Cedar from Cuba and Mexico, whenever these are scarce in the market.

The Thitkado is subject to heart and star-shakes, and in seasoning is very liable to split from the surface if left long in the round or unconverted state, consequently we need not look for any very extensive business to be done in it. There have been some importations of this wood into the London market, and to the Continent.

Small quantities of Thitka or Kathitka, a kind of bastard Mahogany, have also been exported from Burmah, for furniture and other purposes, but I have not yet met with it in London. It is thought to be a species of Tiliaceæ, and is named by Kurz as Pentace Burmanica.