From the wood of the champac the images of Buddha are carved for the temples.
[Footnote 1: Dr.Gardner supposed the ironwood tree of Ceylon to have been confounded with the _Messua ferrea_ of Linnaeus.

He asserted it to be a distinct species, and assigned to it the well-known Singhalese name "_nagaha_," or _iron-wood tree_.

But this conjecture has since proved erroneous.] The celebrated Upas tree of Java (_Antiaris toxicaria_) which has been the subject of so many romances, exploded by Dr.Horsfield[1], was supposed by Dr.Gardner to exist in Ceylon, but more recent scrutiny has shown that what he mistook for it, was an allied species, the _A.
saccidora_, which grows at Kornegalle, and in other parts of the island; and is scarcely less remarkable, though for very different characteristics.

The Ceylon species was first brought to public notice by E.Rawdon Power, Esq., government agent of the Kandyan province, who sent specimens of it, and of the sacks which it furnishes, to the branch of the Asiatic Society at Colombo.

It is known to the Singhalese by the name of "ritigaha," and is identical with the _Lepurandra saccidora_, from which the natives of Coorg, like those of Ceylon, manufacture an ingenious substitute for sacks by a process which is described by Mr.
Nimmo.[2] "A branch is cut corresponding to the length and breadth of the bag required, it is soaked and then beaten with clubs till the liber separates from the timber.