Occasional Notes. 



[Owing to the press of other matter, the various items of Occasional 

 Notes are deferred ; and only those two or three special points are 

 referred to here that are called for in the present issue. — Ed.] 



Identifications of Guiana Timber Trees. — In the last 

 issue of Timehri, page 386, a list of the identifications 

 of various timber trees of Guiana was given, having been 

 extracted from the Descriptive Catalogue of the Colonial 

 Museum, Haarlem, 1888. 



In this catalogue, Wamara, Banniaor Brown Ebony is 

 classed under the one technical term of Swartzia tomen- 

 tosa (D.C.) ; while Washiba or Bow-wood (Man-letter- 

 hout) is referred to the Piratinera guianensis (Aubl.), 

 and Dakamaballi or Black greenheart to Vouacapoua 

 americana (Aubl.) 



In a letter from Mr. Michael McTurk, whose 

 familiarity with the timber trees of the colony is well- 

 known, he informs me that " Wamara and Bannia are 

 very distinct trees, not at all like one another ;" that 

 Washiba is not letter-wood, but is bow-wood, the two 

 kinds of letter-wood being Bouracouroo and Tibicusi, 

 the latter of which is often used for bows, though 

 Washiba is better ; and that Dakamaballi is not Black 

 greenheart, nor anything like greenheart. 



From this it would appear that the collectors of the 

 specimens describedjn the Haarlem catalogue, wrongly 

 associated the names of Wamara and Bannia in the first 



