1885.] THE TIMBER TREES OF CF.YLON. 429 



THE TIMBER TREES OF CEYLON. 



UNDER the title " Timber Trees of Ccylvn, hy ^ludaliyar 

 Meiulis, witli Notes on them hy W. Ferguson, F.L.S.," a 

 ])aiiiphlet of twenty-three pa<i;es has been issued from the Cej/lon 

 Observer press in Colomho. Tiiis little book is valuable as throwing 

 some light not only on tl;e botanical source of the trees, Imt on the 

 character of the woods and the uses to which they are put in Ceylon. 



The timber trees of Ceylon are interesting in conseciuence of the 

 general hardness of their woods and the tine colour or figure of many 

 of them ; but notwithstanding this, Ceylon woods, with the exception 

 of a few such as ebony and calamander, are scarcely known out of 

 their own country. Many of the species, however, are common to 

 various parts of India. 



It is a fact that though most of the dependencies of the British 

 Crown have at some time made a display of their timber resources 

 by exhibiting large and striking slabs at some of the International 

 Exhibitions, the exhibits of Ceylon have always been of a more 

 diminutive character. An excellent collection of Ceylon woods, 

 however, was shown at the International Exhibition at South 

 Kensington in 18G2. It consisted of about 160 specimens each 

 about 21 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. They 

 were all well seasoned and polished ; but though well selected, and 

 many of them finely-figured pieces, they were too narrow to give a 

 good general idea of what the woods would be like in bulk. And 

 here we may perhaps say a few words upon selecting and preparing 

 woods for exhibition purposes. Dead wood should in all cases be 

 rejected, and a fair average sample taken from properly-felled 

 timber: the section should be cut in the case of large slabs through 

 the centre of the tree, so as to show the sapwood as well as the heart- 

 wood, so that the proportion of each may be seen at a glance ; the 

 bark should also be left on the edges. For small and handy 

 specimens where a large collection is got together, no size can be 

 better than that adopted by the Indian Forest Department in the 

 fine set of woods sent by them to the Paris Exhibition in 1878, a 

 duplicate set of which is now in the Kew Museum. These measure 

 9 inches high by 6 inches wide and 2 inches thick : they lend 

 themselves wonderi'ully well for any kind of arrangement. On a 

 staging, for instance, they can be placed one above another without 

 loss of space ; and in the glazed cases of a museum, they suit almost 

 any shelf; moreover, they are convenient for handling for examina- 

 tion. With regard to numbering, woods should always be stamiK'l 



