450 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



Mahogany bark has been ascertained by Drs 

 Wright and Lind, to possess all the febrifuge 

 qualities of the Peruvian bark, and has been 

 employed instead of this latter. It is said, 

 indeed, to contain a larger proportion of the bitter 

 principle than the Peruvian bark, and to have 

 other qualities to recommend it in medicine. 



LiGNUMViTiE. The lignumvitce of commerce 

 (guaiacum offlcinalc) 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 cap- 

 sules. In its native climate the lignumvitfe 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 iiTegular lozenge-work. Lignumvitoe 

 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 crystallized metal. It is fuU of resinous 

 juice, which prevents oil or water from working 

 into it; and it is, therefore, 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 lignumvitse 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. Lignumvitse is 

 much used in our dock-yards for sheaves; and 

 its application may be seen upon a grand scale, 

 in the beautiful block-machinery at Portsmouth. 



When full grown, the largest lignumvitas trees 

 are from forty to fifty feet in height, and from 

 fourteen to eighteen inches in diameter. Like 

 the other resinous 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 lignumvitae, gitm guaiacum 

 of the shops, may be obtained by bleeding the 

 live tree, and also by boiling the chips and saw- 

 dust of the wood. It is aromatic, slightly bitter, 

 and prescr'ibed in chronic rheumatisms, and other 

 diseases. The capsules and also the bark are 

 aperient, and used in medicine, the former being 

 the more powerful. 



The lignumvitse has been reared by artificial 

 heat in this country; but, as it grows slowly 

 even in the West Indies, its growth here must 

 of course be still slower, and therefore it does 

 not admit of being cultivated, except in botani- 

 cal collections, or as a curiosity. 



The Teak Tree 

 family verbenacece. 



grandis). Natural 

 m(m,gynia, of 



Linnseus. It is extensively used in the East, in 

 the construction of houses and temples ; and its 

 leaves furnish a purple dye of much brilliancy. 

 This interesting tree is called tecca in Malabar; 

 it grows to a very great size, is of great dura- 

 bility, and is justly entitled to the name of the 

 oak of the East. The trunk is erect and mas- 

 sive, the bark ash-coloured; the leaves are obo- 

 vate, downy underneath; and on j'oung trees 

 from twelve to twenty-four inches long, and 

 from eight to sixteen broad. The flowers are in 

 panicles, small, white, and fragrant; the seeds 

 are lens-shaped, in four-celled drupes. This tree 

 abounds in the vast forests of Java, Ceylon, Mal- 

 abar, and Coromandel, and especially in the 

 empires of Birman and Pegu. The wood has by 

 long experience been found to be the most 

 useful in Asia. It is easily worked, and at the 

 same time both strong and durable. It is con- 

 sidered superior to all others for ship-building 

 not even excepting the oak. 



Calcutta and Madras derive all their supplies 

 of wood for ship-building from the teak forests 

 of Ava and Pegu. Some of the finest vessels 

 that have ever arrived in the Thames have been 

 of teak tree, built in Bengal. The tree was 

 introduced to the British possessions by Lord 

 CornwaUis, and is now planted with a view to 

 timber in the mountainous parts of Bengal. 



Besides its value as timber, the teak has great 

 beauty as a tree. It is found more than two 

 hundred feet high, and the stem, the branches, 

 and the leaves, are all very imposing. On the 

 banks of the river Irrawady, in the Birman 

 empire, the teak forests are unrivalled; and they 

 rise so far over the jungle or brushwood, by 

 which tropical forests are usually rendered impe- 

 netrable, that they seem almost as if one forest 

 were raised on gigantic poles over the top of 

 another. The teak has not the broad strength 

 of the oak, the cedar, and some other trees; but 

 there is a grace in its form which they do not 

 possess. 



