ASIATIC WOODS. 329 



(Nat. Ord. Verbenacem) . — This timber, probably the most 

 durable known, is very hard, and abounds in particles of 

 silex, which of course renders it very heavy. This is an 

 objection to its use in ship- building, for which purpose it 

 would otherwise be the most valuable timber-tree known. 

 It is -nevertheless very extensively used for that purpose. 



Toon, Tunga, Poma, or Jeea^wood, the wood of Cedrela 

 Toona (Nat. Ord. Cedrelacete) , resembles mahogany, and is 

 very much used for furniture, especially in the East Indies. 

 It is not very often imported to this country. 



Amboyna Wood, Kyabuca or Kiabooca Wood. — There 

 are several varieties of this very beautiful wood found in 

 our timber-yards ; they are probably all furnished by the 

 same tree, Pterospermum Indicum (Nat. Ord. Byttneria- 

 cece) . It is most beautifully mottled and curled, of various 

 tints from light-red to dark-yellow, and always in small 

 lumps, being evidently excrescences or wens cut from 

 the trees. The varieties of Amboyna wood are principally 

 used for inlaying and by the makers of ornamental snuff- 

 boxes. Mr. Holtzapffel mentions the root of the Cocoa-nut 

 Palm as being so much like Amboyna wood that it is 

 scarcely distinguishable. 



Ebony, Mauritius Ebony, the wood of Diospyros 



