170 TlMEHRI. 
brown wood colour, and with fewer lactiferous vessels. 
The outer layer is sub-divided into several very thin 
layers. These are of two kinds, and differ much in the 
density of their cells. They alternate a dark brown and 
pale gray. In young trees they are few, but increase 
with age. I have counted as many as twelve of each 
kind in the bark of a large tree. The second primary 
layer is that which yields the balata milk, though the 
inner more ligneous layer is not devoid of it. These two 
layers are homogeneous, and adherent to the wood till it 
is dry. The longitudinal fissures which I have mentioned 
as a prominent external characteristic of the bark, are 
not absolute divisions of the cortical tissue (or at 
least they only become so eventually as the layers peel 
off) for where they occur the outer layer dips into the 
thick lactiferous layer and so preserves its continuity. 
The thin layers of the external primary layer crack 
transversely in pieces an inch or two long, and by lateral 
contraction eventually scale off. 
The wood is of a reddish tinge, and one of the hardest 
and densest in the colony. It weighs 80 lbs to the 
cubic foot. It is very durable for most building purposes, 
but is not used for piles in the erection of wharves or 
stellings, as it is more liable to the attacks of marine 
borers than greenheart, the wood that is generally used 
for this purpose. It is one of the best adapted woods 
for mill rollers, and is the kind commonly used in Jamaica 
and some of the other West Indian Islands by the small 
cultivators for their upright cane mills. When wind- 
mills were in use in this country their arms, shafts 
and framework were invariably made of it. The long 
pestles used by the inhabitants of the Canje to husk 
