10 



FUSTIC WOOD: ITS SUBSTITUTES AND ADULTERANTS. 



and wild lime (X. fagara Linn. Sarg.). In the West Indies these 

 woods are known by the general name of espino or espino rubial. 

 Elsewhere they are known as box, yellow thorn, or yellow Hercules 

 club. They furnish a hard, light yellowish wood, sometimes nearly 

 white, but which becomes yellowish when exposed to light. The 

 structural characters of the woods of these species are so similar that 

 the southern prickly ash may be taken as typical of all. 



FIG. 4. Transverse section of southern prickly ash wood (Xanthoxylum clavafier culls.) Magnified 



50 diameters. 



The wood of southern prickly ash is moderately heavy, hard, close 

 grained, with yellowish-brown heartwood and very thin yellow sap- 

 wood. The annual rings of growth can be distinguished with the 

 naked eye, especially in samples from the temperate Zone, but they 

 are less distinct in specimens from Cuba or extreme southern Florida. 

 The early wood is marked by a single line of pores or vessels which 

 vary from 0.1 to 0.15 millimeter in diameter. These vessels are 

 usually somewhat larger than those formed later. Vessels in the 



