VALUABLE WOODS. yx 



overtop its neighbour and reach the upjjer region above the 

 crowd of its competitors. Amongst this throng of vegetable 

 life are seen numbers of palms, the feathery crowns often 

 overtopping the other trees. ]\Iost of the exogenous trees are 

 of hard- wooded sj^ecies, allied to mahogany, satin-wood, teak, 

 and ebony. A great variety of beautifully-veined and durable 

 woods, suitable for all kinds of building and of cabinet-work, 

 are found in the Madagascar forests, and are already used to 

 a considerable extent for furniture and the parcLuetrie floors 

 of the houses of the upper classes in the capital city and its 

 neighbourhood. Of these woods a kind called vdamhdana is 

 the most plentiful, and has a great variety of colour and vein- 

 ing. Another wood, the vardngy {Calojiliyllum inophyllu7n) is 

 largely used for rafters and joists, and for the native canoes. 

 The height of some of these forest trees may be imagined from 

 the fact that the three central posts of the chief royal palace 

 at Antananarivo are each formed of a single trunk, and are 

 1 20 feet high above the ground, besides a considerable depth 

 below. 



In the south-eastern forests a large proportion of the trees 

 are of considerable girth, owing to their being buttressed round 

 the trunk with aerial roots, which seem to ascend with the 

 growth of the tree to give the additional support required by 

 the increasing height. The hollows between these buttresses 

 form a number of small chambers large enough to enclose 

 several people. In these woods the growth of the trees is so 

 dense that it is difficult to get a palanquin through in many 

 places, and there is a deep gloom below even at mid-day. 



It may be here remarked that a Hova house of the old style 

 and of the better class is entirely constructed of vegetable 

 materials. So also are the dwellings of the people in almost 

 every other part of the island ; they are so made that no metal 

 whatever is needed ; all fastenings are either of wood or of 

 tough fibrous plants, which tie the whole firmly together. 



Coast Vegetation. — For several hundred miles along the 

 eastern coast of Madagascar there runs a chain of lagoons 

 into which the rivers flow, leaving an irregular strip of land 

 between them and the sea. This level belt is covered with 

 tlie richest greensward, and dotted over with masses of 



