Tuesday, December 16, 2008

India - Gateway to the Teaks!

I'm going to an old source for this information - namely, the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, as found online.

TEAK,' the most valuable of all known timbers. For use in tropical countries it has no equal, and for certain purposes it is preferable to other woods in temperate climates also. Its price is higher than that of any other timber, except mahogany.2 Great efforts have been made to find substitutes, but no timber has been brought to market in sufficient quantities combining the many valuable qualities which teak possesses....

It is a large deciduous tree, of the natural order Verbenaceae, with a tall, straight but often buttressed stem, a spreading crown, and the branchlets four-sided with large quadrangular pith. It is a native of the Indian peninsula, Burma and Siam, and is also found in the Philippine Islands, in Java and elsewhere in the Malay Archipelago. In India proper its northern limit is 24° 40' on the west side of the Aravalli Hills, and in the centre, near Jhansi, in 25° 30' N. lat. In Burma it extends '


More here.

The whole series: sneaks | beaks | teaks | reeks | freaks | geeks

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