240 



PLANKS. 



said to keep off mosquitos. The mango, the 

 jack, the copal tree, and many others, give fine 

 hard woods for cabinet work. 



Planks and scantling, cross-beams and door- 

 panels, are made of two fine trees, the ' Mtim- 

 bati ' and the ' Mvule.' 1 The negro carpenters 

 always sacrifice, I have said, a tree to make a 

 plank, and the latter is so heavy that for all light 

 erections, such as upper rooms, boards must be 

 imported from Europe. The Mtimbati is the 

 more venous ; rungs of ladders, well kept and 

 painted, will last 15 years. The enduring Mvule, 

 a close-grained yellow wood, is rare upon the 

 Island, but common in the Coast jungles. As is 

 •the case with the Kalambak, there is no tariff for 

 these trees : what to-day is sold at a bazar auc- 

 tion for SI may in a week fetch $8. A good 

 practical account of the medicinal plants and 

 timbers of Madagascar and Mozambique, Zanzibar 

 and the Seychelles, will be found in appendices 

 A. B. vol. ii. of Mr Lyons McLeod's ' Travels in 

 Eastern Africa, with a Narrative of a Residence 

 in Mozambique.' Captain Guillain may also be 

 consulted, vol. i. p. 23 — 25. 



The Bordi or Zanzibar rafters are felled by 



1 The Inzimbati (a leguminosa) and Invouli of Capt. Gruil- 

 lain. 



