GUIDE TO TIMBERS OF NIGERIA 21 



Density, No. 3622 0-48 or about 30 Ib. per cu. ft. 



Unwin (p. 352) gives 35 Ib. Chevalier (p. 255) gives 0-283, 

 or when freshly-felled 0-40. 



BARK. Chevalier (1909, p. 255) says " whitish, falling away 

 in irregular scales ; red and mucilaginous within." 



USES, ETC. " Pirogues, by the natives ; should be interest- 

 ing to the European furniture trade ; much superior to Lime 

 or Poplar, which it might replace" (Chev. I.e.). " A good 

 timber- tree ; wood strong, works well ; a tall and straight- 

 growing tree ; wood rather liable to warp when seasoned ; 

 not termite-proof, and suffers severely from the attacks of a 

 small weevil " (Unwin, 1920, p. 351). " The tree has powerful 

 buttresses like Eriodendron, but is spineless " (Chev. I.e.). 

 Our specimens are far from being equal in quality to Lime or 

 Poplar ; the wood should find local use for temporary purposes. 



Conservator's note. " A tall, straight-growing, deciduous 

 tree with buttresses up to 4 or 5 feet from the ground. Plentiful 

 in the mixed deciduous forests. Timber white and soft, of no 

 special character ; very little used locally, and is not durable." 



Saccoglottis gabonensis, Urban. Humiriacese. Gen. 

 No. 909. 



Synonym : Sometimes spelt in error " Saxoglottis gabunensis." 



LOCALITIES. Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Gaboon. 



VERNACULAR NAMES. Amuan ; Atala ; Attalla ; Edat ; 

 Mahogany ; Ndat ; Tala ; Ugu ; Ozouga ; Ozougo ; Esoua ; 

 Mosouhouga. 



Description of the wood from a specimen, No. 3608 " Atala," 

 received from the Government of Nigeria (Lagos). 



A hard and heavy wood of a purplish red colour resembling 

 the East Indian " Eng." Surface, dull ; grain, medium, very 

 much inclined and open for the most part ; not cold to the 

 touch. Shade of the transverse section slightly deeper than 

 that of the other sections. Smell, none. Chevalier's descrip- 

 tion, " Uniform pale red ; heartwood a little darker," hardly 

 accords. But he says elsewhere (1917, p. 87), " of a beautiful 

 red." Unwin says, " dark red." 



STRUCTURE. Transverse section. (Prepared with glass- 

 paper.) 



Parenchyma of one kind only, sheathing the pores, but not 



