Teak

tek, a tree of eastern India yielding excellent ship timber. Teak is a forest tree, eighty to two hundred feet high, with leaves, flowers, and seeds that establish its relationship to our garden verbenas. Teak timber is light and strong, resembling mahogany in appearance. It is particularly able to withstand the attacks of boring in sects. Elephants are employed in Farther India carrying logs of teak balanced across their tusks. One elephant will do the work of many men, picking up his own timber, avoiding obstacles with nicety, and piling with care. All he asks in return is an armful of sugar-cane. Teak is not subject to the attacks of white ants. For that reason it is a valuable railway timber. Oak rusts iron by contact, but teak contains an oil, the same that renders it unpalatable to ants, which preserves iron from rust. Teak wood is desirable therefore, for all parts of a ship where wood and iron are joined. Singapore is an important teak market. See Siam