54 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



long after the discovery of America the 

 only means of communication between 

 the Philippines and Spain was by way 

 of Mexico, and many products of the 

 "Indies" attributed to New Spain were 

 really of Philippine or East Indian 

 origin. The lignum nephriticuni of 

 Mexico and that of the Philippines, al- 

 though very different in grain and 

 color, yield fluorescent infusions and 

 extracts so closely similar that they can 

 scarcely be distinguished. The Mexican 

 wood resembles lignum-vitae, the Philip- 

 pine is somewhat like Spanish cedar or 

 teak. The heartwood of the former, 

 which is extremely compact and heavily 

 lignified,is impregnated with a peculiar 

 substance which can be called neither a 

 resin nor a gum. Since this substance 

 is not found in the wood of the Ptero- 

 carpus, it will be seen that it is not the 

 cause of the fluorescence, which exists 

 almost equally in the two woods. More- 

 over, the resin-like matter is insoluble 

 in water, while that which causes the 



fluorescence is freely soluble even in 

 cold water. Neither does this mys- 

 terious power reside in the red bodies 

 which give color to the Pterocarpus 

 wood. 



The fact remains, therefore, that not- 

 withstanding all the painstaking re- 

 search which lignum nephriticum has 

 induced, the most interesting prob- 

 lem regarding it is yet unsolved — the 

 nature of the substance which causes 

 the beautiful color phenomena produced 

 by the wood. Eenowned throughout 

 Europe in the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries for its medicinal prop- 

 erties, as well as for this wonderful 

 fluorescent quality, the magic woods 

 have been traced to their homes in the 

 Philippines and in Mexico and fully 

 identified, in spite of confusing and 

 conflicting evidence as to their identity. 

 But that which the learned Jesuit two 

 hundred and seventy years ago prom- 

 ised to reveal has continued to elude all 

 investigators down to the present time. 



Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution 



The sweetly aromatic Mexican lignum nephriticum (Eysenhardtia polystachya) sometimes 



occurs as a stunted bush with very small leaflets, sometimes as a spreading shrub with straight 



stem and recurved branches, and sometimes as a slender tree. The small, white, fragrant 



flowers turn yellow in drying 



