168 
TIMBER 
of bringing other timber to the site at considerably 
greater expense.^ Logs can be obtained 30 ft. long. The 
timber has a fair life, the first bridges built with it stood 
for sixteen years without repair, and in favourable situations 
Mr. Byrne considered their life to be twenty-five years. 
Some trees contain much less pith than others, and some 
have absolutely none for 20 ft. of their length. In a good 
specimen the woody portion is about one-third the diameter 
at half the height ; it is very hard and almost black. 
This Palmyra palm and the T. paroijiora of Jamaica, the 
trunks of which are said to be suitable for piles and marine 
work and to stand well in water, are, so far as the author 
knows, the only palms which have been used for construc- 
tive work, but it is probable that many others might be 
used for similar purposes if required. 
Weight 63 to 72 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Palms in hundreds of varieties are to be found in tropical 
and sub-tropical regions ; but except that they are often used 
for light construction work and for basket work, etc., few of 
them produce timber of commerce, although most of tliem 
yield products useful to man. 
The Kiziuba Palm {Ceroxylon exorrhiza), a native of 
Central and South America, yields wood in small quantities 
which is used for flooring, umbrella sticks by the natives, 
and musical instruments, whilst the Raphia ta'digera, one of 
the most beautiful and singular of palms, which is found on 
the banks of the Amazon, is made into wooden blinds and 
baskets by the Indians; and the ^«r/Zm/?mera furnisbes the 
whalebone-like fibre much used for making brooms and 
brushes. The so-called malacca canes are furnished by the 
stems of tbe Calamis seipionum, which grows in Sumatra, 
from whence the canes are exported to Malacca. 
1 Mill, of Proc. Inst. C.E., Vol. XXII. 
