Also calaminder, (? calaminda). [Of uncertain origin: see quot. 1859. Clough, Singhalese Dict. gives kalumadīriya as the Singhalese name; which Forbes Watson cites also as calumidiriya, kalumederiye, etc., but these may be adaptations of the Dutch.]
A beautiful and extremely hard cabinet wood of Ceylon and India, the product of Diospyros quæsita (N. O. Ebenaceæ), specifically akin to ebony.
1804. R. Percival, Ceylon, in Ann. Rev., II. 47/2. The banyan, the cotton-tree, the tickwood, and the beautiful calamander … are indigenous here.
1828. Heber, Journ. Upper India (1844), II. 161 (Y.). The Calamander tree … is become scarce from the improvident use formerly made of it.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Cinnamon & Pearls, v. 79. The finely-veined calaminda.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, I. I. iii. 118. I apprehend that the name Calamander, which was used by the Dutch, is but a corruption of Coromandel.
