TIMBER WOODS. 101 



Balata (Mimusops). The Balata, or Bullet-wood, is one of 

 our best and most useful timbers. Though a hard wood, Balata 

 is not, however, iron-hard as are the Poui and a few others : owing 

 to its regularity of grain and freedom from knots, it is easily sawn, 

 and still more so split ; and workmen, in general, prefer working 

 it to many others of even less solidity. It is excellent in many 

 respects, but mainly as house-posts, and plates, joists or floor- 

 beams and runners, as also for fence-posts, spokes, and even 

 shingles the latter remarkably durable. The Balata grows to 

 very large sizes, some measuring five and six feet in diameter, 

 whilst the unbranched shaft often rises from fifty to sixty feet. 



Poui (Tecoma). There are three varieties of the Poui, cha- 

 racterised by the colour chiefly, viz. : the white, the green, and the 

 black Poui ; of these the green is accounted the superior quality. 

 Poui is, unquestionably, our hardest timber, and the Swedish axe 

 alone is fully equal to the task of felling it ; it also contains a sort 

 of gummo-resinous substance which, particularly in the black kind, 

 impedes the free action of the saw. The usages to which Poui is 

 applicable are not so numerous as those of Balata ; it is mainly 

 employed for ground-posts and other beams in heavy build- 

 ings, and is, for such purposes, considered by many as su- 

 perior to the former : though growing to large sizes, it never 

 attains the proportions of the Balata. 



Acoma, or Mastic (Achras). Between this wood and the Ba- 

 lata there exists the greatest analogy, with the exception of colour 

 the former being of a light straw, whilst the latter is of a dark 

 red tinge : it possesses a very fine and close, but also a very hard 

 grain, and may be said to combine the qualities of the two fore- 

 going timbers. It is adapted to almost all purposes, even to the 

 handling and boxing of carpenters' tools, and is, in these respects, 

 perhaps our most available timber. It thrives, generally, in 

 mountainous districts, and attains large dimensions. 



Yoke. Very common, and an excellent wood not so hard 

 and heavy as the preceding ones, but equally durable. It is 

 applicable to all building purposes, and can also be wrought into 

 handsome furniture ; its colour is not so dark as that of the ma- 

 hogany, but is, perhaps, more beautifully variegated. Yoke may be 

 said to be imperishable in the ground : it grows to a large size. 



Bois-lezard, Fidele, or, by corruption, Fiddle-wood ( Vitex cap- 

 itata). This again is an excellent wood, neither too heavy nor too 



