CHAP. HI.] CABINET WOODS. 117 



bark, small white flowers, and polished leaves, with 

 a somewhat unpleasant odour. Owing to the difficulty of 

 carrying its heavy beams, the natives do not cut it except 

 near the banks of the rivers, down which it is floated to 

 the coast, whence large quantities are exported 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 

 Suriya 1 , with flowers so like those of a tulip that Euro- 

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

 and saline 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, whilst its tough wood is used for carriage 

 shafts and gun-stocks. 



The forests to the east furnish the only valuable ca~ 

 linet woods used in Ceylon, the chief of which is ebony 2 , 

 which grows in great abundance throughout all the flat 

 country to the west of Trincomalie. It is a different 

 species from the ebony of Mauritius 3 , and excels it and 

 all others in the evenness and intensity of its dark colour. 

 The centre of the trunk is the only portion that fur- 

 nishes the extremely black part which is the ebony of 

 commerce; but the trees are of such magnitude that 

 reduced logs of from two to three feet in diameter can 

 readily be procured from the forests at Trincoraalie. 

 For facility of carriage these are obliged to be cut into 

 lengths of ten or fifteen feet. 



There is another cabinet wood, of extreme beauty, 

 called by the natives Cadooberia. It is a species of ebony 4 , 

 in which the prevailing black is stained with stripes 

 of rich brown, approaching to yellow and rose colour. 

 But its density is inconsiderable, and its durability is 

 far inferior to that of the true ebony. 



1 Thespesia populnea. 3 D. reticulate. 



a Diospyros ebenuni. 4 D. ebenaster. 



