130 
TIMBER 
is considered the best wood in the colony. It is very 
dense though coarse of grain, and feels cold to the touch 
like greenheart and boxwood. The heartwood is dark 
green shading to brown and is sharply defined from the 
reddish brown sapwood, which is generally about an inch wide. 
Weight about 57 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Ducalliballi, a hard timber of a beautiful reddish brown 
colour and capable of taking a fiae polish, has been used as 
a furniture and ornamental wood in the colony for many 
years. The medullary rays are very close, and the pores, 
as in most of the hard timbers of this part of the world, 
large and conspicuous. The author a short time ago came 
across a hewn log about 30 ft. long and 12 inches square 
in the London Docks which had come over with greenheart, 
but he cannot find that it is used in Great Britain, and 
indeed it is but little known. The botanical species is not 
defined. 
Letterwood or Snakewood (Brosivrnm auhletii) is found in 
some of the West India Islands, but chiefly in Guiana, where 
the vernacular name is si-to-oh-balh or bourra-courra. It 
is exported in short lengths 4 or 5 inches in diameter. The 
heartwood, which is the only part used, is of a nut brown 
colour spotted with black, very hard and heavy, one of 
the most beautiful of woods. Chiefly used for small 
ornamental turnery, cabinet inlaying, walking-sticks, 
Indian bows, etc., it often sells at about eightpence per 
pound. The amount of sapwood is considerable, it is 
fairly hard, of the same colour as box, and might be used 
for the same purposes. This tree is closely allied to the 
breadfruit tree and is becoming scarce. 
Weight about 77 to 83 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Lignum Vit» {Guaiamm officinale) or guaiacum wood. 
The chief supply comes from the West India Islands, 
