Teak is the produce of a tree of the genus _Tectona_. _T. grandis_ is one of the largest Indian trees, and one of the most valuable, on account of its excellent timber. The trunk is neat, lofty, and of an enormous size; the leaves about twenty inches long and a foot or more wide; the flowers small, white, and fragrant, and collected into very large panicles. It is a native of various parts of India, and was introduced into Bengal by Lord Cornwallis and Colonel Kydd. The wood of this tree has been proved by long experience to be the most useful timber in Asia; it is light and easily worked, and at the same time strong and durable. It is considered equal to oak for ship-building, and has some resemblance to it in its timber; many vessels trading between this country and India are constructed of it. That which grows near the banks of the Godavery is beautifully veined, closer in the grain, and heavier than other varieties. “On the banks of the river Irrawaddy, in the Birman empire, the teak forests are unrivalled; and they rise so far over the jungle or brushwood, by which tropical forests are rendered impenetrable, that they seem almost as if one forest were raised on gigantic poles over the top of another. The teak has not the broad strength of the oak, the cedar, and some other trees; but there is a grace in its form which they do not possess.” A specimen of this tree was introduced into the Royal Gardens at Kew about seventy years ago; but from the coldness of our climate it can never become a forest-tree in this country. Valuable as teak is found to be in ship-building, it has not yet been used in domestic building to any extent. From sixteen to eighteen thousand loads of teak are annually imported into Britain from India, principally for the Royal Dock-yards, this wood being used for certain beams and pillars in ships. The Fir and Pine as Timber Trees. _Fir_, or _Pine_, ranks next to oak for its valuable qualities, and if its universal application be taken into consideration, it might be thought even superior in importance. It is used for every part of houses, and extensively in ship-building, in the fittings-up, while it constitutes the only material for masts, for which purpose its lightness, and the great length and straightness of the trunk, peculiarly fit it.