ˈheart-wood
1. A name for the central part of the timber of exogenous trees, hardened and matured by age; duramen.
| 1801 Knight in Phil. Trans. XCI. 351 Ossified within the heart-wood. 1876 Oxford Bible-Helps 113 Ebony..is the heart-wood of the date-tree. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. iii. §3. 80 In all trees which have the distinction between the sap-wood and heart-wood well marked, the latter acquires a deeper colour. |
2. The Tasmanian iron-wood, Notelæa ligustrina.
| 1889 J. H. Maiden Useful Native Plants Austral. 579 The heart-wood yields a very peculiar figure; it is a very fair substitute for Lignum-Vitæ. 1902 G. S. Boulger Wood ii. 221 Notelæa ligustrina... South-eastern Australasia. Known also as ‘Heartwood’ in Tasmania{ddd}exceedingly hard and close-grained. |