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CHAPTER IV.

RED WOODS.

A. Open or Soluble Class.

QEVERAL woods are known, all characterised by the feature that they im-part to tissues mordanted with alumina or tin a fugitive red colour. Thetrees from which they are obtained belong to the natural order of heguminosce,and are natives of warm climates, especially Central and South America, theAntilles, and India. These woods are met with in commerce in the shape offagots, of irregular blocks, and billets. In physical structure these woods arehard and compact; the colour is internally bright yellow, but the portions ex-posed to air are brown. They are devoid of smell; their taste is sweetish bitteror astringent, and they tinge the saliva red. In India some of these woodswere employed for dyeing purposes long before the discovery of America (1492),and some of them even appear to have been known and used in Europe beforethat epoch. The following varieties of “ open ” red woods are used to agreater or less extent:—

r. Pernambuco* wood, the best variety and the richest in tinctorial matter,is imported from Parai'ba. It is the product of the Ccesalpinia crista, a treeabundantly found in Jamaica as well as in Brazil. It is imported in billets,varying in weight from 4 to 120 lbs. The wood is hard, heavy (thesp. gr. of these woods being generally above that of water, and averagingi'oi4), compact; externally red; internally pale yellowish red when freshly cut,but on exposure to air it becomes a deep brown-red. Its taste is sweetish,and its odour faintly aromatic. It tinges water beautifully red.

2. Brazil wood, properly so-called, the product of the Ccesalpinia brasiliensis,from the immense forests of that large country, is met with in trade in theshape of large irregularly hewn blocks ; it is hard, compaCt, and, when freshlycut, a brick-red, but becomes deeper brown on exposure to air. It is capableof taking a polish. Its tinctorial value is about one-half less than that ofPernambuco wood, but like most of these woods improves by age. It becomesbetter even after having been cut down, provided it is not exposed to excessivemoisture.

3- St. Martha wood, produced by the Ccesalpinia echinata, growing in thenative forests of St. Martha, or Sierra Nevada of Mexico. It is met with incommerce in billets about 1 metre in length ; one end of these is commonlycut off rounded, but the other end is sawn through square. These billets arefull of cracks, generally filled with splinters, and vary in weight from 20 to4° lbs. Its physical properties are much the same as those of the kinds above

* Also written Pernambuco.