Chap. ITT.] CABINET WOODS. 117 



grey bark, small white flowers, and polisliecl leaves, 

 with a somewhat unpleasant odour. Owing to the 

 difficulty of carrying its heavy beams, the natives only 

 cut it near the banks of the rivers, down which it is 

 floated to the coast, whence large quantities are ex- 

 ported to every part of the colony. The richly-coloured 

 and feathery pieces are used for cabinet-work, and the 

 more ordinary logs for building purposes, every house in 

 the eastern province being floored and timbered with 

 satin-wood. 



Another useful tree, very common in Ceylon, is the 

 Suria^, with flowers so like those of a tulip that Euro- 

 peans know it as the tuHp tree. It loves the sea air 

 and sahne soils. It is planted all along the avenues 

 and streets in the towns near the coast, where it is 

 equally valued for its shade and the beauty of its yel- 

 low flowers, w^hilst its tough Avood is used for carriage 

 shafts and gun-stocks. 



The forests to the east furnish the only valuable ca- 

 binet woods used in Ceylon, the chief of which is ebony ^, 

 which grows in great abundance throughout all the flat 

 country to the west of Trincomahe. It is a different 

 species from the ebony of Mamdtius^, and excels it and 

 all others in the evenness and intensity of its colour. 

 The centre of the trunk is the only portion which fiu^- 

 nishes the extremely black part which is the ebony of 

 commerce ; but the trees are of such magnitude that 

 reduced logs of two feet in diameter, and varying from 

 ten to fifteen feet in length, can readily be procured 

 from the forests at Trincomalie. 



There is another cabinet wood, of extreme beauty, 

 caUed by the natives Cadooberia. It is a bastard species 

 of ebony*, in which the prevaihng black is stained 

 with stripes of rich brown, approaching to yellow and 

 pink. But its density is inconsiderable, and in dural)i- 

 lity it is far inferior to that of true ebony. 



1 Tliespesia popiilnea. I ' D. reticulata, 



^ Diospyros ebeniun. | ■* D. ebeuaster. 



I 3 



