AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 23 



cut into convenient logs suitable for shipment. It is claimed for Honduras logwood 

 that it is superior to that grown in Jamaica and St. Domingo, and that its market 

 value is fully 40 per cent higher. The yield of this wood is almost inexhaustible, as 

 it seeds freely, and can be recut in ten to fifteen years. Its original value was 100 

 per ton, then 40; in 1825, 16; and it is now quoted at 5 to 7. Its export from 

 the colony in 1713 to 1716 was 5,740 tons; in 1824, over 4,000; in 1874, 9,210 tons, 

 The average for the last ten years has been 16,000 tons. 



Its production for shipment requires less capital than mahogany, and is frequently 

 undertaken by small capitalists employing small gangs, who pay a royalty for cufc 

 ting on the estates. 



It is brought down the rivers in "bark logs," or floating cradles made of the cab- 

 bage palm, and in dorays, in which it is also conveyed along the coast. 



Amongst the other woods of the colony are 



The Sapodilla (Achias sapota). This is a most durable wood, difficult, on actoum 

 of its extreme hardness, to work, but it does work up handsomely in furniture. The 

 tree grows tall and free from branches, and one variety bears a sweet fruit with a 

 rough rind, the naseberry, the seeds of which are used as a diuretic. It ia much 

 used locally for uprights and beams in house carpentry, but owing to the greas 

 weight of the logs can not be floated down the rivers to the ports. If this liUnculty 

 of transportation be overcome say by the introduction of railways ihis wood 

 must find its way to European and other markets in much larger shipments than is 

 the case now. At present it can hardly be said to be exported. Tbtjre are two 

 varieties, the black and the red, one rather scarcer than the other and not half so 

 lofty, although about the same girth. It is a tree which grows abundantly in 

 Honduras. 



Rosewood (Dalbergia sp.). A very heavy, rich, dark-reddish wood, very desirable 

 for cabinet purposes, and plentiful in the colony, growing to a, height of 5>0 feet, 

 with a girth of 36 to 38 inches. Owing to its weight it is difficult to transport by 

 water, an obstacle to the exportation of many of the native furniture woods yet to 

 be overcome; about 150 to 200 tons are probably the average exportation. The so- 

 called Bastard Rose is a distinct variety, the wood of which w-rks up much redder 

 in color; and there is another illegitimate of the family, the MX, found in the colony. 



Sam or salmwood (Jacaranda sp.). A brown, very durable wood. On account of 

 its being avoided by all kinds of insects, it is much appreciated for lining ward- 

 robes, etc. It would, therefore, be very suitable for specimen cases for collectors of 

 natural history objects, especially entomological specimens. The tree grows 50 feet 

 high, with an average diameter of 2 feet. It is not exported. 



Ziricote is by some considered a description of rosewood. Mr. Moms, director of 

 Botanical Garden, Jamaica, who made a professional tour through the colony a 

 )w years ago, at the request of the colonial government, states it to be scarce, but it 



abundant in the northern district. It is only exported in small quantities. The 



ime authority classes it amongst other timbers of the colony as yet unclassified 



id unknown to commerce. 



Fustic. A yellow dyewood ; is well known to commerce and the trade ; the Morus 

 tinctoria. It is used locally for furniture work, and about 100 tons are annually 

 exported. 



Poisonwood. Of so-called poisonwood there are apparently three varieties, but 

 "Chechem" is simply the Indian name for all kinds of wood locally so designated. 

 The trees are so named on account of their secreting an acrid juice which, dropping 

 on the skin of the woodcutter, blisters it ; and a local authority, a writer in the Colo- 

 nial Guardian, reviewing the preliminary exhibition in Belize, describes the "Che- 

 chem" as a kind of Upas, to be under the shade of which for any time inflames the 

 skin of the face and the eyes. The writer calls the wood of the same tree the " King 

 of Woods," but he means of cabinet woods. The trees of the black variety are large 

 and umbrageous, and both kinds grow abundantly in the region, the height averag- 





