296 Linnaan Society. 



The wood resembles white pine, both in colour and quality, and 

 makes good boards for inside work. A decoction of the bark, which 

 is intensely bitter, is considered an excellent remedy in dysentery 

 and other complaints of the bowels, and is much used among the 

 Indians. 



Yahou. Grows in valleys in rich soil, and is much used for the 

 staves of casks, &c. 



Wallaba (Eperua falcata, AubL). In great abundance along the 

 banks of rivers, reaching 40 feet in height, and being often 2 feet in 

 diameter. Bark reddish brown, with a thin white sap, enclosing a 

 wood of a deep red colour frequently variegated with whitish streaks. 

 It is hard, heavy and shining, and impregnated with an oily resin, 

 which makes it very durable both in and out of water. It splits very 

 easily, and is consequently generally used for palings, shingles and 

 vat-staves, and also for posts and uprights in framing. The bark, 

 which is somewhat bitter, is a good emetic, M'hich is much used by 

 the Arawak Indians in a decoction. 



Curahuri or Kuruhuru. Tall and straight. Wood used for framing, 

 boards and planks. 



Curana, Samaria, Acuyari, Mara, or Cedar-Wood (Icica altissima, 

 AubL) ; two varieties, as they are considered by Aublet, one having 

 red wood and the other white. The Red Cedar is found only in the 

 interior, growing to 60 or 70 feet and even higher, and from 4 to 

 5 feet in diameter. It has a strong aromatic smell, and is much in 

 request for inside furnishing, bookcases and shelves, as it is found 

 to preserve books and papers from injury by insects, and is also 

 light, easily worked and not liable to split. Its great height would 

 qualify it for masts, and the Indians prefer its trunk to that of any 

 other tree for preparing their canoes. One of those employed by 

 the author during an expedition into the interior, which was 42 feet 

 long and 5| feet wide, was hollowed out of a single trunk of this 

 tree, and was found at the end of four years' service, having pre- 

 viously been much used, to be as sound as when bought for the ex- 

 pedition, although it had been in both fresh and salt water, and 

 hauled over land and cataracts in the interval. 



Itaballi or Copai-yc of the Macusi Indians (Vochy Guianensis, 

 AubL). From 50 to GO feet high, and from 2 to 2\ feet in diameter. 

 Wood hard, but not very durable when exposed to the weather; 

 chiefly used for inside work, staves for sugar hogsheads, boat-oars, 

 &c. Flowers of a beautiful yellow, highly odoriferous and very 

 ornamental. 



White Siruaballi. A tall tree ; wood much lighter than the brown 

 Siruaballi previously mentioned, but not so much esteemed. ; 



Curata-ye of the Macusis (Curatella Americana, L.). A crooked 

 tree, seldom more than 12 feet high, with crooked and tortuous 

 branches, and a thick rough bark which frequently peels off in large 

 flakes. The crooked l)ranches are much used by the Indians for 

 their canoes, and might serve for military saddles. It grows only 

 in the Savannahs of the interior. The leaves, which are scabrous, 



