206 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Szpr., 1898, 
Economic Botany. 
No. 8. 
LIGNUM VITA (GUALACUM OFFICINALE, Linn.) 
By J. F. BAILEY. 
Derivation. —Guaiacum, from Guayacan or Gayco, the native name. 
Description.—A small tree belonging to the natural order Zygophyllew 
(Bean-caper family), with numerous, spreading, jointed, knotty branches; 
bark smooth, ash-grey ; young shoots somewhat flattened, several from a node. 
Leaves numerous, evergreen, crowded, opposite, with stipules about 3 inches 
long, which fall off very early; leaflets in two or three pairs, unequal, the 
terminal pair being the largest, all broadly oval or obovate, very blunt at apex, 
rounded at the base, often unequal-sided; rather thick, bright-green, veins 
rather prominent above, invisible beneath. Flowers light-biue, rather large, on 
slender straight stalks about an inch long, in clusters of four to ten. Fruit 
about ¢-inch long, smooth, brownish-yellow, two-celled (vide plate, which is 
taken from Bentley and Trimen’s Medicinal Plants). Native of the West 
Indian islands, especially Jamaica, Hayti, and Cuba; it is also found in 
Colombia and Venezuela, on the South American continent. 
Uses.—Guaiacum wood, which is remarkable for the singular brownish 
green of the heart, is chiefly used on account of 1ts extreme hardness, toughness, 
density, and durability. It also possesses stimulant, diaphoretic, and alterative 
properties, but its action is not so strong as the resin. 
*  Inacountry like Queensland it might seem superfluous to recommend the 
cultivation for profit of any plant for the sake of its wood when we take into 
consideration the vast number of our indigenous kinds, over 600 of which are 
on view in the Museum attached to this Department; yet among the thousand 
woods of the colony there is none, so far as at present known, that could take 
the place of Lignum Vite, which is so well adapted and in great demand for 
the making of pestles, mortars, blocks, pulleys, rulers, skittle-balls, &c., and 
also used extensively in engineering work. The retail price in Brisbane of 
the wood is Is. 8d. per lb. Some of our indigenous woods of small growth, 
such, for instance, as Hovea longipes, sometimes called “ Port Curtis Yellow- 
wood,” might be experimented with as a substitute for Lignum Vite. (Mor a 
description of the tree and an account of the wood, sce No. 115, in Bailey’s 
Catalogue of Queensland Woods.) i 
The resin, called “gum guaiacum,” is either a natural exudation or ig 
obtained by jagging or notching the stem, and allowing the exuding juice to 
harden ; or logs of the wood, after having been much incised in their middle, 
are suspended horizontally in the air by two upright stakes, and then set on 
fire at their two ends ; the melted resin then runs out from the centre in large 
quantity into some vessel put to receive it. Good guaiacum resin fetches 
about 2s. per lb. in the London market. It is commonly impure, owing to the 
careless manner in which it is collected. It possesses stimulant, diaphoretic, 
and alterative properties. It is a useful remedy in chronie forms of rheumatism, 
more especially in that variety which is relieved by warmth; also in syphilitic 
and gouty affections, scrofula, skin diseases, and various uterine affections. 
The common tincture of guaiacum has been employed diluted with water to 
cleanse the mouth, strengthen the gums, and to relieve toothache. It is 
brittle, breaking with a clear glassy fracture. It is readily powdered, and 
