LOGWOOD, the dark red solid heart-wood of hsematoxylon eampeehian,um, a tree of the natural order leguminosce, sub-order ecesalpinecs. This tree grows in Mexico and Central America, and is perhaps a native of some of the West India islands; but is said to have been introduced into Jamaica in the beginning of the 18th c., although it is now naturalized there. It is the only known species of its genus. It grows to a height of 20 to 50 ft. ; the leaves are pari-pinnate; the racemes many-flowered, and longer than the leaves. The sapwood is yellowish, and being worthless, is hewed off with the bark. 'The heart-wood is heavier than v.-ater, close-grained, but rather coarse. It has a slight smell resembling that of violets, a sweetish taste, is astringent, and contains a distm zuishing crystalline principle, called luematoxyline (q.v.).
No dye-wood is imported in such large quantities as logwood; nearly 50,000 tons are annually sent to Great Britain. It was first introduced in the reign of queen Elizabeth, but the color was found to wash out, and the dyers not knowing how to fix it, much
bas been constantly in use, science having shown means for fixing. Logwood is imported in large billets or logs, usually about 4 ft. in length, 18 in. in diameter, and of very irregular shape; the larger they are the greater their value; the color is a dark blood-red, becoming almost black after long exposure. The infusion of the wood is also blood-red, which color it yields readily to boiling water; it is changed to light red by acids, and to