Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIG'NUM-VI-TAE, n. [LIG'NUM-VI-TÆ; L.]

The popular name of Guaiacum officinale or poxwood. The common Lignum-vitae is a native of the warm latitudes of America. It becomes a large tree, having a hard, brownish, brittle bark, and its wood firm, solid, ponderous, very resinous, of a blackish yellow color in the middle, and of a hot aromatic taste. It is of considerable use in medicine and the mechanical arts, being wrought into utensils, wheels, cogs, and various articles of turnery. – Encyc.