PAO D ARCO. 



65 



also hard, but is much more penetrable than the 

 pao ferrOy and the polish to which it may be 

 brought is more complete. * 



The pao d'arco is another valuable wood, and 

 is so called, I imagine, from the use which the 

 Indians made of it for their bows ; it is much 

 used in building, and is accounted almost as 

 durable as the pao ferro. It admits of being 

 cleft into splinters, which are flexible without 

 breaking. The pao d'arco has the property of 

 retaining fire for a long time without being stirred, 

 and of yielding a bright light if the log be occa- 

 sionally touched. The peasantry take advan- 

 tage of this, and cleave the logs into several 

 narrow splinters, of which they form a bunch j 

 this being lighted, serves them as a flambeau. 

 Formerly, likewise, when every thing was in a 

 ruder state even than it is now in Brazil, the 

 sugar-works were lighted with logs of pao d'arco 

 instead of oil ; indeed I have heard that some of 

 the mills in the back settlements still continue 

 this practice. The ashes of this tree are used 

 as temper in the boiling-houses of the mills. The 

 number of fine species of timber in Brazil is very 

 great, but I am myself acquainted only with a 

 few of them, f 



* Marcgraff also speaks of a species ofjacaranda, which is 

 a white wood. 



f I shall give the names of those with which I am ac- 

 quainted : pardba, jacaranduba, guabiraba, araroba, cicopira, 



VOL. J I. F 



