TIMBEES OF BRITISH GUIANA 
131 
some from Guiana and other parts of tropical America, 
and at one time it was very plentiful in the Mauritius. The 
colour of the heartwood is dark green or greenish black ; 
the sap, which varies a good deal in thickness, is of a 
dingy yellow hue and very distinct. It is one of the 
hardest, heaviest, and toughest timbers known; strong, 
close and wiry in grain, the annual rings are scarcely 
distinguishable, and the fibres of each layer cross one 
another diagonally, making it a very difficult matter to 
split the wood, although it is easily planed. Mr. John 
Calvert saw an old post of lignum vitae in West Indian 
waters in the shape of a cross, said to have been placed 
there by the Spaniards hundreds of years ago ; it was not 
decayed in the water and very little affected between wind 
and water (il/m. of Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., vol. 24) . The wood 
contains about 25 per cent, of gum resin called guaiacum, 
which is used as powder, pill, and tincture. The bark is also 
used as a medicine. The amount of sapwood on the 
timber is considerable, but is equally as good, tough, and 
durable as the heartwood. There is nothing to equal 
lignum vitas for block sheaves, cog wheels, shafts, and 
footsteps for vertical shafting in pumps. Sheaves after 
50 to 60 years' wear have been found to be perfectly good. 
It is also much used for mallets, plumbers' mandrils, etc., 
and in the Bahamas for hinges and fastenings of doors by 
the sea shore, where ironwork quickly corrodes. The wood 
is imported in the round state in lengths of 3 or 4 ft., 
which are usually under 12 inches diameter, although in the 
Isthmus of Darien it is said to grow 5 to 6 ft. in diameter ; 
it is sold by the ton, and at a recent sale prices varied from 
£4 15s. to £7 15s. 
Its weight is with 12 per cent, of water about 73 lbs. 
per cubic foot. An inferior substitute for lignum vitse, and 
with which it has nothing in common and which is much 
K 2 
