138 



JOURNAL, R.A.S, (CEYLON). [VOL. II., PART II. 



plentiful as ebony. It is found in the same districts as the 

 preceding. 



Calamander is valuable, not only on account of its beauty, 

 but also by reason of its increasing scarceness ; it is only to 

 be met with in the forests near Ratnapura and in the 

 Pasdun koral6, and even there it is found to be very 

 small. The tree is of very slow growth, the natives believing 

 that one of an ordinary size is at least three hundred years 

 old ; it is pretty certain that in a very few years there will 

 not be sufficient calamander in Ceylon to make a single pair 

 of couches. 



The satinwood is more plentiful in certain localities than 

 either of the preceding: it is found chiefly in the Northern, 

 North- Western, and Eastern Provinces, growing generally 

 to the height of one hundred feet. The variegated or flowered 

 satin is the most valuable for furniture, but it is found in 

 comparatively small quantities— probably not more than 

 three per cent, of the trees on the east coast yield this quality ; 

 but in the country about Puttalam it is said to prevail to the 

 extent of fifteen or twenty per cent. Satinwood is admirably 

 adapted to all purposes requiring great strength and 

 resistance to weather. It is much used for piles of bridges, 

 and is almost, if not quite, the only wood which will stand 

 as teeth in cog-wheels of machinery, — ebony, though harder, 

 being too brittle. In the Eastern Province this wood is 

 most abundant, and nearly all the houses are built of it, 

 even down to the flooring. 



There are some other woods which would appear to be 

 well adapted for ornamental furniture work, though, with the 

 exception of the nedun wood, not yet employed for such 

 purposes : these are the nedun, the tamarind, and the del 

 woods, all of which, save the last, are hard, of a close grain, 

 admittiug of a fine polish, and tolerably abundant in the 

 Western aud Southern Provinces. 



