A large number of the forest trees yield substances of commercial value. Two species of climbing plants afford india-rubber, one of the most valuable exports of the island. A tree called Nàto supplies a bark which is largely employed by the natives in dyeing the deep red used for their silk _làmbas_, especially those used to wrap the bodies of the dead. Other trees yield various gums and resins, one of these being the valuable gum-copal, of which quantities are exported. From several other trees tough fibres are obtained for the manufacture of cord and rope; while from a palm called Vònitra the “bass fibre” or piassava is taken, which is used for making brooms, brushes, etc. A shrub, a species of castor-oil plant, supplies seeds which are so full of oil or fat that they are strung on a reed like beads and are used to give light, so that it is called “the candle-nut tree.” When one end is lit, the seeds burn steadily, giving a light about equal to that of two good candles and leaving no ash. A very considerable number of trees and plants are employed in various ways by the Malagasy as medicine, both for internal and external use; and although the virtue of some of these may be imaginative only, there can be little doubt that in numbers of instances these native remedies are of value. Probably a careful examination of them would give some valuable additions to the pharmacopœia. Among the forest trees is a considerable number which yield valuable timber, most of them hard and beautifully grained woods, which are employed for cabinet-work as well as in house carpentry. In the great palace at Antanànarìvo, the three central columns supporting the ridge of the roof are said to be each formed of the trunk of a single tree; the roof is a hundred and twenty feet high, and these pillars are sunk some way in the earth. One of these timber trees, called _Vòambòana_, is extensively used for making furniture—tables, sideboards, wardrobes, writing-desks, bookshelves, etc.—and resembles mahogany. Another tree called _Hàrahàra_ has extremely hard wood, and is employed for the long spade handles, and formerly for spear shafts. One species of pine known as _Hètatra_, the only example of that order in the island, gives a hard white wood used for flooring; while ebony is procured from one or two endemic species of _Diospyros_; sandalwood is also reported to be found in certain localities. [Sidenote: SUPERSTITIONS]