HARDWOOD TIMBERS OF CENTRAL AMERICA 115 
but figured specimens are scarce among the number. 
Such logs always command high prices, especially when 
of finely figured quality, and there is a record of one 
making 2ls. per foot in public sale in London some 
few years ago. The figured logs are still used by the 
cabinet trades, but to less extent than formerly, the 
bulk of the total imported into the United Kingdom 
at the present day passing into the hands of brush- 
makers, for the making of the backs of expensive 
hair-brushes. The wood found in the adjacent Island 
of Puerto Rico is held perhaps in greater estimation 
than the St. Domingo wood, being of a brighter and 
richer colour. Unfortunately, however, this supply 
has become practically exhausted, and very little 
besides roots and rough stumps of trees is shipped at 
the present time. Even these are in demand, notwith- 
standing the large amount of waste that occurs in their 
conversion. Pieces have been known to sell at £110 
per ton, the usual price, however, being about an average 
of £10 to £30 per ton. 
Lignum Vitae.—This is a wood which is common to 
several of the West Indian Islands, the tree from which 
it is obtained growing perhaps more freely in St. Domingo 
and Cuba than in the other islands. It is the 
heaviest wood in existence, its dry weight being approxi- 
mately 80 Ibs. to the cubic foot ; even a piece of its thin 
covering of bark will sink when immersed in water. 
Its great weight indicates its extremely dense character, 
it being perhaps one of the hardest woods existing. 
In colour it is of a dark brown, streaked with black, 
the sap-wood, of equal value to the heart-wood, being 
yellow and of very narrow proportions. The wood is 
of close texture, and is largely impregnated with a 
sticky resinous or gummy substance. It is exported 
in short lengths and of generally small dimensions, 
