Correct spelling is Bois Canon

THE EDITOR: There is a restaurant in Port-of-Spain, a part of which bears the name of one of our indigenous trees. The dried leaves of this tree are sometimes boiled by country folk to make a nostrum for coughs and colds. In newspaper ads, this tea shop is referred to as “Bois Kano.” Writing in a newspaper recently, a columnist listed this same tree as “Bois Cannot.” Apparent uncertainty about the correct spelling has prompted me, for the benefit of your readers and of posterity, to explain its etymology.
If one were to cut a cross-section of the trunk of this tree, one would discover that it is hollow much in the same way as the muzzle of a cannon. Because of this characteristic, the French, when they settled here, called it cannon wood which in their language is “Bois Canon.” It is to be noted that the “on” in “canon” is given in French a deep nasal sound which makes the misspelt “kano” a close approximation, pronunciation wise that is.

RAOUL  DUCHAUSSEE
11  Seventh  Street
Mt  Lambert