LIGNUMVIT^E. 163 



5. LIGNUMVITJE. The Lignumvitix of commerce 

 (Guaiacum Officinale') is a dark-looking evergreen, 

 and grows to a great size in the West India Islands, of 

 which it is a native. It bears blue flowers, which 

 are succeeded by roundish capsules. In its native 

 climate the Lignumvita? is a very hardy tree, and 

 retains its greenness in the dryest weather. It strikes 

 its roots deep into the ground, and thus defies the 

 hurricane as well as the drought. The bark is hard, 

 smooth, and brittle; and the wood is of a yellowish, 

 or, rather, olive colour, with the grain crossing in a 

 sort of irregular lozenge-work. Lignumvitae is the 

 weightiest timber with which we are acquainted, and 

 it is the most difficult to work. It can hardly be split, 

 but breaks into pieces like a stone or chrystalized 

 metal. It is full of resinous juice, which prevents 

 oil or water from working into it ; and it is, there- 

 fore, proof against decay. Its weight and hardness 

 make it the very best timber for stampers and mallets 

 of all sorts; and its resinous matter fits it the best 

 for the sheaves or pulleys of blocks, and for friction 

 rollers and castors. A sheave of lignumvitae cuts a 

 wooden pin less, and is less cut by- a metal one, than 

 a sheave of any other timber ; while its own sap 

 makes it work as smoothly as other timber even when 

 smeared with grease, black-lead, or any other anti- 

 attrition application. Lignumvitae is much used in 

 our dock-yards for sheaves; and its application may 

 be seen upon a grand scale, hi the beautiful block- 

 machinery at Portsmouth. 



When full grown, the largest lignumvitse trees are 

 from forty to fifty feet in height, and from fourteen 

 to eighteen inches in diameter. Like the other resi- 

 nous trees, it contains sapwood, which is of lighter 

 colour than the heart; but, though not so hard, the 

 light part is a weighty and strong timber, and not 

 liable to separate from the other. 



The resin of the Iignumvita3, Gum Guaiacwn of 



