Lore
Pioneering calypsonian/vaudevillian Sam Manning recorded a song entitled "Lignum Vitae" in the 1920s. His reference was doubly salacious, referring to both the bark tea's contraceptive qualities and the phallic symbolism of the hard wood.
According to T.H. White's version of the King Arthur story The Once and Future King, lignum vitae, from which the wand of Merlin is made, has magical powers.
Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera includes a bathtub made of this wood in one of the main characters' homes. His novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold also refers to this wood being used to make a cane for the blind Poncio Vicario.
American folksinger Pete Seeger fashioned the neck of his trademark banjo from lignum vitae.
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A hand plane with a lignum vitae sole, likely Bulnesia, and a pearwood body
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Example of the original construction 53 lb/yd (26 kg/m) inverted "U" rail aka "Bridge" rail, "screw" spike, and lignum vitae tie used to build the Panama Railroad from 1851 to 1855.
Read more about this topic: Lignum Vitae
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