IRON-WOOD is the name applied to several kinds of timber, the produce of trees from different parts of the tropics, and belonging to very different natural families. Usually the wood is extremely hard, dense, and darkcoloured, and sinks in water. The true iron-wood of the East Indies and Malay archipelago, of which anchors are often made, seems to be the Metrosideros vera of Rumphius, a tree belonging to the Myrtaceae, and formerly extensively used in China, Japan, and the Moluccas. Several species of Sideroxylon lfjapotaceae) also yield ironwood, Sideroxylon cinereum or Bojemanum, D. C., being the bois de fer blanc of Africa and Mauritius....
West Indian iron-wood is the produce of Colubrina reclinata and C. ferrugina, Ad. Br. (Rhamnaccae), and of Aegiphila mar· tinicensis, Linn. (Verbenaceae). Ixοra (Sidcrodendrori) triflorwm, Vahl. (Rubiaceae), is the bois de fer of Martinique, and Zanthoxy∙ lum Pterota, H. B. K. (Rutaceae), is the iron-wood of Jamaica, while Robinia Ponacoco, Aubl. (Lcgumwosae), is described as the iron-wood of Guiana. The iron-wood of Ceylon is the produce of Mesua ferrea, Linn. (Guttifcrae). The endemic bois de fer of Mauri·» tius, once frequent in the primeval woods, but now becoming very scarce, is the Stadtmannia Sideroxylon, I). C. (Sapindace ae}, while the Cossignya pinnata, Lam., is known as the bois de fer de Judas. Coccoloba grandifolia and C. pubescens (Polygonaceae) yield a kind of West Indian iron-wood. Muba buxifolia, Pers. (Ebenaceaej, yields a variety of iron-wood which is used at Tavoy in Burmah to make anchors for large boats. Tasmanian iron-wood is the produce of Notelaea ligustrina (Oleaceae), and is chiefly used for making ships’ blocks. The iron-wood or lever-wood of North America is the timber of the American hop hornbeam, Ostrya νirginica (Cιιpu- liferae). In Brazil Apuleia ferrea, Mart., and Caesalpinia ferrea, Mart., yield a kind of iron-wood, called, however, the Pao ferro or false iron-wood.
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