No. 5. — 1849.] woods of ceylon. 137 



value of these woods for useful purposes, in which they are 

 numbered 1 to 4. 



Those numbered 1 are the most valuable, either for 

 ornamental work or for building purposes, and able to staud 

 long exposure to weather. 



The woods marked 2 are those which, though good, are not 

 so strong nor so well able to bear exposure out of doors. 



No. 3 are such as are only used for inferior purposes, and 

 seldom, if ever, employed for house-building, except perhaps 

 by the natives. They are used chiefly for packing-cases, 

 dry casks, ceilings, stands for goods, common door or 

 window frames, partitions in rooms, or similar purposes. 



No, 4 comprises all those woods which are unfit for 

 carpenters' work, and are either quite useless, or only 

 employed for constructing mud and stick houses or other 

 rough and temporary jungle work. 



Of the four hundred and sixteen varieties, there are : — 



33 of No. 1. I 162 of No. 3. 



82 of No. 2. 139 of No. 4. 



Of those included in the first class, the most prominent are 

 the calamander, the kadumberiya, the ebony, and satin- 

 wood, the two latter being best known, as they are found in 

 sufficient quantities to enable them to be used for building 

 or other purposes, as well as for ornamental works. 



Ebony is too well known to require description. It grows 

 chiefly in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, but it is 

 also met with in the Kandyan district: a large forest of it 

 existed at one time in the vale of Dumbara, which has since 

 given place to coffee bushes. It is not used for any purposes 

 in Ceylon beyond furniture and articles of ornament, but it 

 is exported largely to Europe at times. It is far more 

 difficult to work up than satinwood, and also more brittle. 



The kadumberiya, or bastard ebony, is of a fine black 

 colour, deeply and richly veined with red, and admirably 

 adapted for furniture; it is excessively hard, but not so 



