60 



SILVA OF N on Til AMERICA. 



ZYGOPHYLLACE^. 



wliere it is common on the dry gravelly mesas of tlie valley of the lower Eio Grande. A second North 

 American species ^ is common in Sonera, and at least three little known species are foimd in southern 

 Mexico and in Gautemala. One species ^ is widely distributed through the northern countries of South 

 America from Cartagena to Venezuela^ and a second South American species inhabits the Andes of 

 Peru.^ Guaiacum officinale, Gtiaiacum sanctum, and Guaiacum arhoreum. are small trees. The other 

 species which with Guaiacum arhoreum form the section Porlieria or Guaiacidium * are distino-uished 

 by their usually squamulose iilamentSj and are all low shrubs. 



Heavy dense close-grained resinous wood is peculiar to all the species of the genus. The cells of 

 the heartwood are filled with dark-colored resin, which gives it a dark greenish or yellow-brown color 

 while the sapwood, which is not resinous, is clear yellow. The Lignum-vitse and the Guaiacum resin ^ of 

 commerce are produced principally by the two West Indian species, G. officinale and G. sanctum.^ The 

 wood of these two trees, which is not distinguishable, owes its great strength to the peculiar intricate 

 arrangement of the wood-fibre."^ The medullary rays, which are numerous and equidistant, are not 

 visible to the naked eye, and the layers of annual growth are hardly distinguishable, althouo-h the 

 numerous circles formed by alternate darker and lighter bands which appear in the wood of these trees 

 are sometimes mistaken for them. Lignum-vit^e is largely used for the sheaves of ship-blocks, for mal- 

 lets, skittle-balls, and ten-pin balls, and for similar purposes. 



Guaiacum wood enjoyed for centuries after the discovery of America a reputation as a remedy for 

 syphilis ; ^ it is now, however, only retained in the materia medica as an ingredient in the compound 

 decoction of sarsaparilla. The resin is a stimulating diaphoretic and alterative, and is sometimes 

 employed in the treatment of gout and rheumatism.^ 



Guaiacmn, owing to its reported medicinal virtxies, was one of the first plants of the New World 

 to attract the attention of Europeans. Oviedo y Valdes, who landed in America in 1514, describes the 

 tree under the aboriginal name of Guayacan, the Palo Sancto of the early colonists.^^ This was the 

 G. officinale; Oviedo knew, however, of the existence of a second species which he found on the island 

 of Porto Rico or Sanct Johan, where it was known also as Palo Sancto, the name which Linnaeus 

 has preserved for it. Oviedo's first work on the Natural History of America was pubhshed in 1526. 

 Guaiacum, however, was known in Europe some years earlier. The stories of its medical virtues, told by 

 the natives of San Domingo, were soon repeated in Spain and attracted the attention of European physi- 

 cians. One Gonsalvo Ferrand has the reputation of having carried it to Europe about 1508 ; " and 

 three works describing Its virtues were pubhshed in Germany previous to 1520.^^ 



1 Guaiacum CouUeri, Gray, PI Nov. Thurb. 312 {Mem. Am. Acad. 

 n. ser. v.). 



2 Guaiacum arhoreum, De CandoUe, Prodr. i. 707. — Guibourt, 

 Hist. Drog. ed. 1, iii. 553 {Zygophyllum arhoreum, Jacquin, PI. Amer. 

 130, t. 80). 



3 Guaiacum hygrometricum, Baillon, Adansonia, x. 315 (Porlieria 

 Tiygrometrica, Kuiz & Pavon, Syst. 9-1.— Guibourt, Hzs(. TJroj. ed. 

 7, iii. 553), the type of the genus Porlieria. 



^ Gray, Gen. III. ii. 121. 



6 In the island of San Domingo, where Guaiacum resin is chieHy 

 produced, it is collected from the trunks of the trees in part as a 

 natural exudation, and sometimes from incisions made in the Lark. 

 It is obtained also by heating chips of the wood, or by setting fire 

 to the ends of logs supported in a horizontal position above the 

 ground on upright bars, a large incision having been made previ- 

 ously in the middle of the trunk ; the resin, liquefied by the heat, 

 flows from the cut in the trunk in considerable abundance. (Fluck- 

 iger & Hanbnry, Pharmacographia, 95.) 



« The wood of Guaiacum angustifolium is locally employed in 

 medicine In the same manner as that of the West Indian trees 



Wislizenus, Memoir of a Tour in Northern Mexico (Senate Doc. 

 1848), Bot. Apps. 113 ; and the wood of G. arhoreum is said to be 

 sometimes exported In small quantities from the United States of 

 Colombia. 



' Browne, Nat. Hist. Jam. 226. — Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot. ed. 2, 

 134. 



^ The treatment with Guaiacum consisted In confining the pa- 

 tient in a closed room heated to a high temperature, and in admin- 

 istering twice a day, for several days, copious doses of a milk-warm 

 decoction prepared from the wood. It was generally recognized in 

 the beginning of the present century that Guaiacum was powerless 

 to eradicate the venereal poison. (Mat. Med. Brit. ed. 1807.) 



^ Berg, Pharm. Anat. All. 53, t. 27. — Fluckiger & Hanbury, 

 Pharmacographia, 9G. — Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ill. 551. 



^'^ Sumario, cap. Ixxv. ; Hist. Gen. Nat. Ind. lib. 10, cap. 2. 



^^ Jonathan Pereira, Elements Mat. Med. ed. 2, ii. 1653. 



'^^ De cura Morbi Gallici per Lignum Guayacanum libellus, printed 

 In 1535, but dated December 19, 1517. 



De morbo Gallico tractatus, Salisburgi, November, 1518. 



Ulrichi de Hutten equitis de Guaiaci medicina et morbo Gallico liber 



