40 



THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 



It furnishes a black paint and 



railway sleepers owing to its durability, 

 its sap is medicinal." 



Baterden speaks of it as being " a tawny or grey wood, exceedingly 

 strong, nearly three times as strong transversely as pitch pine, good for 

 uprights and wall-plates of framed houses, stands wet and dry weather, 

 and is much used for timbering in mines. It can be had in logs 60 to 70 

 feet long and up to 40 inches square. A first-class sleeper wood." 



Brazil-wood. Caesalpinia echinata, Lam. The West Indies. 



While the true brazil-wood is, correctly, of the above-named species, 



Some of the Gov'Ernmex 



more than one botanical species has been suppHed and some confusion 

 hcLS resulted accordingly. Holtzapffel gives brazil-wood as above, sappan 

 wood as C. sappan, and brazilletto as C. hraziliensis. Messrs. J. Gardner 

 & Sons, who probably have the best available information at present, 

 say that brazil, brazilletto, and Pernambuco wood have always been 

 regarded as the same. 



The wood of these varieties is of a rich, bright-red colour, and is mostly 

 used as a dye-wood, while the best pieces are selected for turning and for 

 vioHn bows. For this last purpose, although many different kinds of timber 

 have been tried, there is nothing that will yield the same result as the - 

 Pernambuco or brazil-wood, and many plaj^ers will use no other kind on 

 account of the peculiar strong, resilient spring only to be found in this 



