THE TIMBERS OF COMMERCE 



Colour. Very deep red, quite uniform in all sections. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : 



Pores. Readily visible, size o-i ; no great variation except 

 within the groups : rather unevenly distributed : a loose pore- 

 ring of large pores : many subdivided, mostly single, but occa- 

 sionally in compact, radial or nested groups of 3-7 pores : few, 

 about 4-16 per sq. mm. : often containing red resin or gum. 



Rays. Just visible, size 4-5 : uniform and equidistant : 

 rather less than the largest pore-width apart, avoiding the 

 larger pores : much denser than the ground : 4-7 per mm. : red. 



Rings doubtful, but the ring of large pores is fairly definite 

 here and there, but no contrast in the density of the tissue. 



Soft-tissue. Abundant in fine red lines, about as wide as the 

 rays : concentric, continuous, wavy : perhaps forming the 

 boundary of the annual ring : also neatly and narrowly en- 

 circling the pores. 



Pith. ? 



Radial Section. The pores are prominent, coarse, open, 

 chambered grooves, mostly empty, but many containing drops 

 of dark resin or gum. The rays are readily visible, dull, darker- 

 coloured flakes. The soft-tissue is doubtfully visible. 



Tangential Section, As the Radial, but the pores are not so 

 coarse : the pore-rings show very prominently as loops, and the 

 soft-tissue appears as a cloudy zone upon the edge of the fringes to 

 the loops. 



Type specimens authenticated by F. M. Bailey, Forest Officer 

 to the Government of Queensland ; also by the Forest Depart- 

 ment at Sydney (as C. australis, Roxb.). They neither agree 

 with Gamble's description nor with that of Nordlinger, but do 

 so with the latter' s section of C. serrata, Royle, but not with 

 Gamble's description of that species. 



No. 32. CRABWOOD. Carapa guianensis. Aubl. 

 PLATE III. FIG. 24. 



Natural Order. Mel.'aceae. 



Synonyms. C. latifolia, Willd. Xylocarpus carapa. Carapa 

 guineensis, Sweet., and C. guyanensis, Oliv., are the C. procera 

 of De Candolle, a different species from Tropical Africa. 



Alternative Names. Crababalli : Caribaballi : Caraba : 

 Carapa, etc., variously spelled. Andiroba branca in Brazil. 

 Andiroba carapa in French Guiana. The Carib-wood of Trinidad 

 is Campomanesia aromatica, and not the present species. 

 [Kundi : Tallicoma in Sierra Leone (107) ? is this C. procera.]. 



Sources of Supply. Tropical America, chiefly British Guiana. 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 39^ Ib. per cm 



38 



