HiEMATOXYLUM CAMPECHIANUM.-LOGWOOD TREE. 
Class X. DECANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, LEGUMINOS M. T HE PEA TRIBE. 
Logwood, or Haematoxylum campechianum, is a native of the western world, having been first discovered in 
the bays of Campeachy and Honduras, growing in the greatest luxuriance and abundance. 
This tree seldom exceeds twenty or twenty-five feet in height ; the trunk and branches are usually 
extremely crooked, the former does not often measure more than twenty inches in diameter : both trunk 
and branches are covered with a rough bark of a brownish colour ; the smaller branches, which are 
very numerous, are beset with sharp spines ; the leaves are abruptly pinnated, and consist of four or five 
pair of obcordate, obliquely nerved, sessile leaflets ; the flowers are produced in terminal spikes or racemes ; 
the calyx is divided into five oblong, obtuse segments, of a brownish purple colour ; the corolla consists of 
five obtusely lanceolate, spreading petals, of a deep yellow colour ; the stamens are downy, shorter than the 
petals, and crowned with smaller oval anthers ; the style is about the length of the filament ; the germen is 
obovate, and becomes a large double-valved pod, containing four or five kidney-shaped seeds. 
It was known as a dye-wood as early as the reign of Elizabeth, but its use was forbidden by an Act of 
Parliament for “ abolishing certain deceitful stuffs employed in dyeing cloths.” The act sets forth “ that 
logwood, or blockwood, of late years brought into this realm, is expressly prohibited to be used by dyers, 
the colours thereof being false and deceitful to the Queen’s subjects at home, and discreditable beyond seas 
to our merchants and dyers.” The injunction against the use of this valuable dye was rigorously enforced, 
and all logwood found was seized and condemned to be burnt. The English were probably at that time 
ignorant of the manner of applying this dye with proper mordants. The prohibition was continued until the 
year 1661, the words of the act by which it was then repealed stating “that the ingenious industry of these 
times hath taught the dyers of England the art of fixing colours made of logwood, so that by experience 
they are found as lasting and serviceable as the colour made with any other sort of dye-wood.” 
Immediately after this repeal logwood became in great request, and adventurous individuals were in- 
duced to make exertions to obtain a supply. This tree is one of the productions of the province of Yucatan, 
where the possessions of the Spaniards for a long time consisted only of the port of San Francisco de Cam- 
peachy, and two other inconsiderable towns, Merida and Valladolid. These could boast of but few inhabit- 
ants, and the rest of the province was wholly desolate, without any indication of the abode of man. The 
English, from the north continent of America, in the year 1662, tempted by the desire of pursuing a pro- 
fitable occupation, ventured to cut down some of the logwood trees, which grew in great abundance on the 
uninhabited parts of the coast of Yucatan, and more especially in the bay of Campeachy. These persons 
soon formed a small colony in a spot remote from any Spanish settlement. They first raised their huts near 
Cape Catoche, and afterwards at Laguna de Terminos, which was found to be a more eligible situation. A 
few settlers thus continued to cut logwood unmolested by the Spaniards, but always with the feeling that 
they were intruders on the soil of other colonists. 
After the treaty of Madrid in 1667, which was principally made for adjusting our commerce with Spain 
in Europe, British subjects were led to imagine that the respective interests of the two countries in the 
western hemisphere had also been accurately defined by the same treaty, and that the right of the English 
to cut logwood in those places of the Honduras, uninhabited by the Spaniards, was now clearly established. 
Many other persons were therefore in consequence induced to become logwood-cutters at Laguna de Ter- 
minos, so that in a year or two the number of settlers was greatly increased, and they transported large 
quantities of wood both to Jamaica and New England. The Spaniards for many years made no expostula- 
tions or complaints, and the English logwood-cutters continued to increase and flourish. 
At first a sufficiency of wood was found near the coast, but when this after a time became exhausted, 
the settlers gradually penetrated farther into the country, where they planted Indian provisions and built 
houses. The jealousy of the Spaniards was at length excited by this growing colony, and suddenly evinced 
itself very unceremoniously by the seizure of two English ships laden with logwood. The settlers of Laguna 
immediately made reprisals by taking possession of a Spanish bark. These mutual acts of violence were 
only the commencement of a series of hostilities, and after suffering much annoyance, the English settlers 
were, in 1680, forcibly ejected by the Spaniards from the island of Trist and from Laguna de Terminos. 
This triumph on the part of their adversaries was, however, but transitory, and in two or three months the 
English were again cutting their logwood, and trading in it more extensively than ever. Notwithstanding 
the continued opposition of the Spaniards, the indefatigable settlers still contrived to increase their supply 
of that article, for whose possession they hazarded so much. Independent of the vexatious warfare by 
which they were constantly harassed, the lives of these poor wood-cutters were marked with hardship and 
privation ; sometimes they worked up to their knees in water, and they were always tormented by the stings 
of innumerable insects. 
