[f. LIGHT a.1] A name given to various trees from the lightness of their wood; in Australia chiefly applied to Acacia Melanoxylon.
(The first quot. may belong to the next word: the writer perh. mistook the reason for the appellation.)
1685. L. Wafer, Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer. (1699), 95. A Tree about the bigness of an Elm, the Wood of which is very light, and we therefore call it Light-wood.
1843. J. Backhouse, Narr. Visit Austral. Col., iv. 48–9. It [Light-wood] derives this name from swimming in water, while the other woods of V. D. [Van Diemens] Land, except the pines, generally sink.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, II. 193. A solitary dark-foliaged lightwood.
1866. H. Simcox, Rustic Rambles, 54. The numerous lightwood trees.
1866. Treas. Bot., 681/1. Lightwood, Ceratopetalum apetalum.
