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Corkwood

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CORKWOOD, the name given to several tropical American trees and shrubs with light porous wood, especially to the alliga tor-apple or pond-apple (Anonas palustris), found in the Ever glades of Florida and widely in the Tropics; the magaguabush (Hibiscus tiliaceus), of the Florida Keys, the West Indies, and other warm regions; and the balsa (Ochroma Lagopus), wide spread in tropical America. The North American corkwood (Leitnera floridana), a small tree with pale yellow wood, is con fined to semi-tropical swamps in Florida and Texas and to muddy sloughs in southeastern Missouri. In New South Wales, a tree, Duboisia myoporioides, of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), is called corkwood. The buoyant wood of these trees is utilized for floats and numerous other purposes, especially that of the balsa (q.v.).

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