158 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
lobiee, to Vouacapoua americana Avsu.' Its colour is a dark brown, 
varying in depth and variegated with whitish spots, whose form varies 
with the direction of the section; its great solidity renders it 
valuable for building and many domestic purposes in Guiana.’ The 
Copaiva-trees have yet finer and handsomer woods, preferably 
employed by the cabinet-maker. That of Copaifera officinalis is 
used for marqueterie in the Antilles. The so-called Amaranth 
woods’ of Guiana belong to C. éracteata, and, we are told, to C. 
pubifora also. They are fine, hard, and elastic, even resisting 
artillery discharges, and are hence used for making fine furniture, 
and all kinds of constructions.*. The Courbaril woods are also of 
good quality. That of Hymenea Courbaril L.* (the West Indian 
Locust-tree) is red, hard, and full of specks, which look as though 
engraved; it is used in the manufacture of very strong furniture 
and utensils. Several other species afford good timber. Mela- 
noxylon Brauna Scuort, the Guarauna of Brazil, is a fine tree with 
an incorruptible, tough, black heart-wood, one of the best in the 
country for building.’ The chief kinds of Iron-wood (Bors de fer) of 
the same country are Apuleia ferrea Mart., and the Juca (Cesal- 
pinia ferrea Manrt.’), the woods of the Vignatico (Lchirospermum 
Balthasart Autyn.), and the Cana fistula (Cassia brasiliana Lamx.”), 
are also cited as excellent. The oily Vowapa or peru, the wood of 
Eperua falcata,” the Wallaba-tree, impregnated with a resinous oil 
that renders it very durable, is prized in Guiana; so, too, is that of 
E. (Parivoa) grandiflora,” used, among other purposes, in the fabri- 
cation of the juruparis® of the Amazon; and especially that of the 
magnificent Dimorphandra excelsa,* which attains a height of upwards 
of 160 feet. Cesalpinia insignis,” from the Amazon, is, we are told, 
one of the Rosewoods of commerce. At the Cape of Good Hope 
8 Both are also termed Pao ferro, or False 
Brazil Jron-wood. 
9 Ex SALDANHA, op. cit., 39, t. 3 (Cassia ?), 
10 See p. 151, note 3.—SaLpanua, op. cit., 43. 
N See p. 105, note 1. 
P See p. 105, note 2, figs. 81, 82. 
13 Musical instruments used by the Indians in 
certain religious ceremonies. 
1 See p. 88, note 4. 
2 Gurs., Drog. Simpl. ed. 4, iii. 331. 
3 Distinguished as red and purple Amaranths 
(Purple-wood, Purple-heart of the English; 
Stmiridi of the Galibis and Arrawacks). 
4 It is also used for gun-carriages, railway- 
sleepers, &c. (see GuIB., loc. cit., 322.—LINDL., 
Veg. Kingd., 550). 
5 Spec., 587 (see above, p. 108, note 1). 
6 Gurs., loc. cit., 323.—RosENTH., op. cit., 
1042. 
7 J. pe Satpanna, Configur. das Pr. 
Madeir., 94, t. 2. 
4 Mora excelsa ScHoMB., in Trans. Linn., Soc., 
xviii. 207.—The seeds of certain Dimorphandras 
are supposed to contain the largest dicotyledonous 
embryos known. : 
18 Poinciana insignis K., Mimos., t. 44.— 
H. B. K., Nou. Gen. et Spec., vi., 333, 
