84 GUIDE TO TIMBERS OF NIGERIA 



(boiling) yield a pale sherry colour. With alcohol they yield 

 a pale orange tincture with an orange-coloured residue. 



Unwin (I.e. p. 10) says that the ground -up dye of P. tinc- 

 torius is preferred by the natives of S. Nigeria to that of Baphia 

 nitida, the true Camwood, though supposed in England to be 

 the inferior article. 



Conservator's note. " A medium-sized, straight-growing tree 

 of the evergreen forest. The timber is of a beautiful rich red 

 colour. Fairly plentiful in the Oban Country. Used as a 

 dye by the natives and also for canoes." 



Description of alternative specimen " Ukpa " (Efik) kindly 

 lent to us by Mr. Unwin. Our No. 1992 HS., from commercial 

 sources, agrees. 



GENERAL CHARACTERS. A rather light but hardish wood of 

 a rich red, somewhat purplish, colour, resembling an inferior 

 quality of Andaman Padauk. The colour deepens and fades 

 considerably ; weathers silvery. Surface clean, dry, not cold 

 to the touch. Grain, coarse, open and slightly inclined. Shade 

 of the transverse section slightly darker than that of the other 

 sections. Smell, none. Floats in water. 



STRUCTURE. Resembles that of all species of Pterocarpus, or 

 of Lophira (p. 14) on a small scale. 



Transverse section. (Prepared with glass-paper.) 



Parenchyma of one kind : (a) readily visible to the naked eye, 

 arranged in almost continuous lines which anastomose occa- 

 sionally, width about equal to that of the spaces between 

 the rays, or rather more, and about 3-6 times their own breadth 

 apart, 2-3 per mm. ; more abundant in the outer zone of the 

 ring ; colour, orange-red ; proportion of the wood, about one- 

 quarter. The cells contain resin globules. 



Vessels visible on account of their parenchyma (a) and 

 occasionally as perforations ; large, diminishing little if at all 

 outwards- to the ring boundary, but rapidly increasing in size 

 as the tree ages ; a slight tendency to arrange themselves in 

 oblique lines apart from the P. (a) ; number per sq. mm. 0-3 ; 

 very widely isolated ; simple or in groups of 2-5 ; proportion 

 of the wood not one-twentieth. 



Rays just visible with lens ; of one kind only ; red, slightly 

 darker than the parenchyma (no orange) ; fairly regular in 

 size and spacing and about their own width apart ; weak and 



