144 



Desorlptlon of the wood 



Sapwood thick, yellowish white; heartwood slightly darker, 

 '■Vood moderately soft, light, not strong, brittle, straight and 

 only moderately fine grained, easily worked and taking a fair- 

 ly good polish, not durable in contact with the soil. Annual 

 rings of growth ^uite prominent imder hand lens, often rather 

 wide near the center. 



Pores (transverse section) very numerous in the early 

 wood, fewer in late v/ood, small ( .15 mm. in diameter), round, 

 open and arranged singly, in pairs, short radial rows or 

 frequently in long tangential rows and almost unbroken row 

 of pores at the beginning of the early wood. Vessel walls 

 -(longitudinal section) with numerous small simple and bcrdesed 

 pits; pit openings transversely slit-like. Perforations 

 simple, v?ood fibers, about .8577 mm, long, septate with 

 very thin walls and large lumina , and numerous small, simple, 

 sometimes bordered pits. Wood parenchyma highly developed, 

 vessels arranged sparingly around and most abundant in the 

 early wood. Hays numerous, small, barely visible under hand 

 lens, from 1 to 4 cells wide and from 3 to 5 times as high.) 



Distribution, common names and uses 



This species, conspicuous among the fiddlewoods, grows 

 on the fertile alluvial flats of the i!'at6 i^iver, which emp- 

 ties into the Caribbean aea one or two miles to the east- 

 ward of the now almost obliterated historical settlement of 

 Nombre de Dios. These flats are covered with a dense forest 

 growth, which proved to have an especially rich tree flora. 



The natives call our new species iguanero , or iguana-tree, 

 because, they say, the lizard-like reptile of that name, which 

 they diligently hunt on account of its delicate chicken-like 

 meat, is often caught while busy feeding on the leaves and 

 flowers. The hard, tough wood, dull yellow in the heart of 

 the trunk, is of little use. 



