ually a native, and I apprehend that
the name, _Calamander_, which was used by the Dutch, is but a corruption
of "Coromandel."

Another species of cabinet wood is produced from the Nedun[1], a large
tree common on the western coast; it belongs to the Pea tribe, and is
allied to the Sisso of India. Its wood, which is lighter than the
"Blackwood" of Bombay, is used for similar purposes.

[Footnote 1: Dalbergia lanceolaria.]

The Tamarind tree[1], and especially its fine roots, produce a
variegated cabinet wood of much beauty, but of such extreme hardness as
scarcely to be workable by any ordinary tool.[2]

[Footnote 1: Tamarindus Indica.]

[Footnote 2: The natives of Western India have a belief that the shade
of the tamarind tree is unhealthy, if not poisonous. But in Ceylon it is
an object of the people, especially in the north of the island, to build
their houses under it, from the conviction that of all trees its _shade
is the coolest_. In this feeling, too, the Europeans are so far disposed
to concur that it has been suggested whether there may not be something
peculiar in the respiration of its leaves. The Singhalese have an idea
that the twigs of the ranna-wara (_Cassia auriculata_) diffuse an
agreeable coolness, and they pull them for the sake of enjoying it by
holding them in their hands or applied to the head. In the south of
Ceylon it is called the Matura tea-tree, its leaves being infused as a
substitute for tea.]

As to fruit trees, it is only on the coast, or near the large villages
and towns, that they are found in any perfection. In the deepest jungle
the sight of a single coco-nut towering above the other foliage is in
Ceylon a never-failing landmark to intimate to a traveller his approach
to a village. The natives have a superstition that the coco-nut will not
grow _out of the sound of the human voice_, and will die if the village
where it had previously thriven become deserted; the solution of the
mystery being in all probability the superior care and manuring which it
receives in such localities.[1] In the generality of the forest hamlets
there are always to be found a few venerable Tamarind trees of
patriarchal proportions, the ubiquitous Jak, with its huge fruits,
weighing from 5 to 50 lbs. (the largest eatable fruit in the world),
each springing from the rugged surface of the bark, and suspended by a
powerful stalk, which attaches it to the trunk of the tree. Lime-trees,
Oranges, and Shaddoks