TIMBEES OF BEITISH GUIANA 127 
is excellent for house framing, and also used for making 
ramrods for guns. It planes fast and well and takes a 
good polish. The sapwood is a dirty white. It is too hard 
for ordinary wood-turning tools. It is not so plentiful as 
mora or bullet tree. The Indians use the bark for making 
wood-skin canoes of considerable size, accommodating 
fifteen or sixteen people, and " dug-outs " from the tree 
itself. It would probably make satisfactory street paving. 
Some purple-heart veneer is used in the cabinet trade. 
The purple-heart of Trinidad {Peltogyne paniculata) is a 
small tree producing timber of the same colour as, or 
rather a browner tint than, that of Guiana, and is probably 
one of the woods known as " Zapateri." Pao Eoxo or 
Guarubu, of Brazil (P. macrocarpus) (which see), is a 
similar timber. 
Weight about 61 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Houbooballi (Mimosa gidanensis), a beautiful wood of light 
brown colour variegated with vertical veins of black and 
brown, grows plentifully in the Essequibo forests of 
Guiana. It makes handsome furniture and panelling, 
and in bottoms of boats will outlast most others. The 
sapwood is about an inch thick, white and clearly defined. 
Saws easily and well, turns well, and takes an excellent 
polish, and is altogether an excellent material to deal with. 
It can be obtained in logs up to 50 ft. long and 20 inches 
square. It is probable that the " Zebra wood " used for 
furniture is the produce of this amongst other trees. 
Weight about 56 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Crabwood [Carapa guiaiiensis) is another of the excellent 
timbers from this part of the world. The wood is reddish 
brown, much resembling mahogany, takes a fine polish, 
turns well, and makes durable furniture ; an excellent wood 
