298 RECORD: BOXWOODS’ OF COMMERCE 
was introduced into the trade from eastern Cape Colony, South 
Africa. This is a true boxwood, Buxus Macowani Oliv., and is 
suitable for engraving, though less highly esteemed than the 
Turkish for this purpose. The preference for the latter is shown 
by the fact that block-makers are salvaging used blocks, cutting 
them into thin layers and gluing these to hard maple backs to 
get the proper height. 
Another wood out of Cape Colony is the Kamassi or Knysna 
boxwood, also known as East London and Cape boxwood. This 
is produced by Gonioma Kamassi E. Mey. of the family Apocy- 
naceae, which contains many fine-textured woods. The Dutch 
name is ‘‘kamassi’’ or ‘‘kamassihout.’’ Although the wood has 
a fine and uniform texture it is not adapted for engraving and 
has found its principal use in the weaver’s trade for shuttles and 
bobbins. It has practically disappeared from the New York 
market. 
TRopicAL AMERICAN BOXWOODS 
Much of the boxwood of commerce is now supplied by the 
forests of the American tropics under the general name of ‘‘ West 
Indian boxwood.’’ There has been much confusion regarding the 
identity of the species producing this material. In most works 
of reference it is erroneously referred to Tecoma pentaphylla Juss. 
(= Tabebuia pentaphylla Hemsl.) of the family Bignoniaceae. 
This mistake arose about 1884, apparently as the result of the 
incorrect labeling of a wood specimen in the museum at Kew, 
England. The wood actually produced by this tree has none of 
the properties of boxwood and is locally known as ‘‘roble’’ (oak), 
name giving some idea of its appearance. 
- In 1880, A. Ernst published a note in the Botanisches Central- 
blatt to the effect that the tree supplying the boxwood of Venezuela 
was Aspidosperma Vargasii DC. (Apocynaceae). He gave the 
local name as ‘‘amarilla yema de huevo,” referring to the resem- 
blance of the color of the wood to that of the yolk of an egg. 
In 1914, Sprague and Boodle contributed a paper to the Kew 
Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information in which they established 
the identity of certain specimens of West Indian or Venezuelan 
boxwood as Casearia praecox Griseb. (Samydaceae or Flacour- 
tiaceae). They expressed the opinion that the wood referred to 
