116 TIMBER 
rarely exceeding 10 in.; occasionally larger pieces 
are shipped, but they are almost invariably subject 
to cup shakes which spoil their value. The wood is 
principally used for ship-blocks, also to some extent for 
rollers, for the making of bowls, and for turnery and 
other miscellaneous purposes. 
Quassia.—This wood is the product of a tree which 
has a fairly wide distribution in the West Indian Islands, 
Brazil, and other parts of South America. Itis a rather 
soft and stringy-grained wood of light yellowish colour, 
and, beyond the extremely bitter taste which it possesses, 
has no other feature to distinguish it. Small parcels 
of rough unmanufactured pieces of this wood are, from 
time to time exported, the consumption being mostly 
for medicinal purposes and for the making of extracts 
for spraying hops and other horticultural produce. 
Lance Wocd.—From Cuba, Jamaica, and other Central 
American districts, but principally from the first men- 
tioned Island, supplies of this wood are obtained. It 
is a heavy, dense, close-textured wood of yellowish 
‘colour, its chief characteristic being its extreme elasticity 
and toughness. It is rarely seen of large size, and, 
shipped in what are known as spars—lengths of 
about 12 to 16 ft., and about 6 in. to 8 in. in 
diameter—finds its chief users among benders of 
timber for shafts of vehicles and other purposes in coach 
and wheelwright work. It was formerly rather exten- 
sively used for fishing-rod making, but has now been 
altogether superseded by green-heart for that purpose. 
Degame.-—A quite distinct variety of the same wood 
as the above. It is similar in most respects to the 
foregoing, shipped from the same sources, exported in 
the same fashion, but in rather larger spars, and is used 
for identical purposes. 
