Also snakewood. [SNAKE sb.]
1. a. A tree or shrub belonging to the genus Strychnos, esp. S. colubrina of the East Indies; the wood of one or other of these trees used as a remedy for snake-poison. b. The East Indian plant Ophioxylon serpentinum.
1598. W. Phillip, trans. Linschoten, I. lxxv. 121/1. Snakewood is most in the Island of Seylon: it is a lowe Tree: the roote thereof being the Snake-woode is of colour white.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 507. Snakewood groweth in Seylon, and is good against the stinging of Snakes and other poyson.
1711. Phil. Trans., XXVII. 347. The first Figure is of a Wood from India,… Lignum Colubrinum, or Snake-Wood.
1835. G. T. Burnett, Outlines Bot., § 4614. Ophioxylon serpentinum is one of the snake-woods, which in various parts of India are affirmed to be antidotes to the bites of poisonous reptiles.
1836. J. M. Gully, Magendie’s Formul. (ed. 2), 6. Nux vomica, the Javanese poison, and the snake-wood all owe their violent action on animals to strychnia [and] brucia.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 592. The wood of S[trychnos] colubrina and S. ligustrina is employed in certain parts of Asia as an antidote to the bites of poisonous snakes, hence it is known under the name of Lignum Colubrinum or Snake-wood.
2. One or other of various trees formerly classed under the genus Colubrina, or of the West Indian trees Cecropia peltata, the trumpet tree, and Plumieria rubra, the red jasmine.
1832. Don, Gen. Syst. Gard. & Bot., II. 36/1. Colubrina ferruginea.… This tree is called Bois couleuvre or Snake-wood in Martinique. Ibid. Reclined-branched Snake-wood [and many other species].
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Snake-wood, a name applied both to the Cecropia peltata, and the Plumeria rubra.
1864. Grisebach, Flora Brit. W. Ind., 787/2. Snake-wood:… Colubrina ferruginosa.
3. The wood of the South American timber-tree Brosimum Aubletii (or Piratinera guianensis), so called from its snake-like markings; letter-wood; also, the tree producing this wood.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 106. Snake-wood is scarce in England, and chiefly used for the most expensive walking-sticks.
1851. Art Jrnl. Illust. Catal., II. p. vii/1. The beautiful snake-wood is the timber of a Brosimum.
1880. Bessey, Botany, 490. The beautifully mottled and streaked Snakewood, much prized by cabinetmakers, and for making bows.
