GREENHEART. 9 
These amounts do not include the vast quantity of greenheart cut 
each year for charcoal. Approximately 80,000 barrels of this are 
exported annually. The demand for the wood of young greenheart 
trees for charcoal became so great that legal restrictions had to be 
placed upon the cutting of young growth. The market for charcoal 
is apparently more stable than that for timber, since the amounts 
of the former exported from year to year show a gradual increase, 
while the amounts of timber usually fluctuate. 
THE TREE. 
Greenheart is a large tree, ranging from 60 to 100 feet in height, 
and from 2 to 4 feet or more in diameter. The trees are without 
branches for from one-fourth to one-third of their total height. They 
generally have clean, symmetrical boles for the first 50 or 60 feet, 
and logs or timbers from 18 to 20 inches square can often be obtained. 
The bole is free from knots, and unlike that of many of the green- 
heart’s associates is not buttressed. The crown is open and broad 
with a few heavy branches. The tree is an evergreen, but during 
the dry season has fewer leaves than during the wet season. Owing 
to the absence of distinct rings of annual growth, the age at which 
greenheart reaches maturity is not accurately known. The tree, how- 
ever, grows very slowly. Specimens known to be 70 years old have 
reached a diameter of scarcely 8 inches. Hence it is probable that 
trees of merchantable size, say 20 inches in diameter, are about 250 
years old, while others of still larger proportions are relatively older. 
GROSS CHARACTERS OF THE WOOD. 
When freshly cut the sapwood of greenheart is pale yellow and the 
heartwood usually of a light grayish-brown, often striped. On -ex- 
posure the wood turns dark, the outer layers assuming a dark green- 
ish or chestnut color, while the center turns a deep brownish-purple 
or almost black. The color of both heart and sap wood varies con- 
siderably in different trees, and in different parts of the same tree. 
The heartwood may, in fact, vary from pale yellow to black, and 
just what the actual color is can not be ascertained until the sapwood 
has been cut through. The proportion of sapwood is usually exces- 
sive, especially in young trees, often amounting to one-fifth and 
sometimes to one-third of the volume of the trunk. This, however, 
has little effect upon the lasting qualities of the wood when used 
above water. 
The wood of greenheart is exceedingly hard and heavy (specific 
gravity from 1.08 to 1.23, or about 75 pounds per cubic foot), tough, 
strong, elastic, and fine grained. It is said to be the strongest timber 
in use, with a crushing strength of 12,000 pounds per square inch, 65 
