CATALOGUE OF THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 65 



transverse striped pattern, indicating that some of the constituents 

 are arranged in tiers. 



Cocus Wood. Brya Ebenus, DC. (?). Weight, 69 lbs. West Indies. 



Supplies of this wood come in a somewhat irregular manner in round 

 logs from 2 to 8 inches in diameter. There is some confusion as to the 

 source of the supplies, though the probabDity is that shippers and 

 merchants supply any botanical variety they can find which is sufficiently 

 like to be given the name. Some of the wood known by the name of 

 canalete would have passed for cocus-wood. It is hard and very heavy. 

 The sap-wood is a very light yellow, and the heart-wood of a brown 

 rosewood colour, streaked with markings of aU shades to a pale straw 

 yellow. It somewhat resembles a brownish-yellow Coromandel wood. 

 It is used for policemen's truncheons, flutes, bagpipes, brush backs, 

 handles of knives and tools, and all kinds of turnery and inlay. 



The pores are very small and obscure ; the medullary rays are 

 exceedingly fine and even ; they are parallel and so regular that they 

 would almost appear to be artificial. 



Cordia fragrantissima, Kurz. Weight, 50 lbs. India, Burma. 



This is a handsome, dark-coloured, scented wood which seasons, 

 works, and polishes weU. It would be very suitable for decorative and 

 ornamental work. It is obtainable in moderate quantities in squares 

 20 feet X 12 inches x 12 inches. 



Coromandel Wood. Diospyros sp. Weight, 70 lbs. 5 oz. 



This name is one by which several different species of ebony 

 {Diospyros) are known, when they possess a particular kind of marking 

 and colouring. According to Holtzapffel, Coromandel or Calamander 

 wood is Diospyros hirsuta, but Gamble gives it as D. quaesita. The 

 description given by Holtzapffel is as follows : " The figure is between 

 that of rosewood and zebra-wood ; the colour of the ground is usually 

 of a red hazel-brown, described also as chocolate brown, with black 

 stripes and marks." He further adds that there are three varieties, 

 " the Calamander or Coromandel, which is the darkest, and the most 

 commonly seen in this country, the Calemberri, which is lighter coloured 

 and striped, and the Omander, the ground of which is as light as English 

 yew, but of a redder cast, with a few slight veins and marks of darker 

 tints." 



Certainly of later years it is exceedingly doubtful whether these 

 descriptions are confined to one, two, or even three varieties. Similarly 

 marked and coloured wood has been obtained from several different sources 



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