CATALOGUE OF THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 121 



The life of the material when used in this manner is extraordinary, and 

 varies from three to seven years, the shortest period being the life of 

 the wood for a fast ship Uke the Mauretania. It is also used for 

 making bowls, for which purpose no other wood is so suitable, and for 

 the packings between saws in machine saw frames. 



Holtzapffel says that " When first cut it is soft and easily worked, 

 but it becomes much harder on exposure to the air. The wood is cross- 

 grained, covered with a smooth yellow sap-like box, almost as hard as 

 the wood, which is of a dull brownish-green, and contains a large quantity 

 of the gum guiacum, which is extracted for the purposes of medicine. . . . 

 The fibrous structure of this wood is very remarkable ; the fibres cross 



THE ANDAMANS. 



each other sometimes as obliquely as at an angle of 30 degrees with the 

 axis, as if one group of the annual layers wound to the right, the next 

 to the left, and so on, but without much apparent exactitude." 



In the Museum at Kew there is a remarkable specimen of a piece 

 which was taken from a parcel, the whole of which, consisting of many 

 tons, was attacked by a form of rot which spread from the centre to the 

 circumference along the medullary rays in a continuation of perforations, 

 which appeared as though attacked by a worm. The whole parcel was 

 rendered valueless by this extraordinary condition' of decay, which, 

 strangely, was confined to the heart-wood and stopped abruptly short of 

 the sap-wood, which was apparently entirely unaffected. 



Lignum vitae was used in the form of marquetry for the decoration 



