50 GUIDE TO TIMBERS OF NIGERIA 



Our specimen 0729 HS. from the Gold Coast, which was sent 

 to Mr. Stone, from Kew, as being this species, is nearly allied 

 if not the same wood, . but it is much browner and darker in 

 colour. No. 3057 " Dahuma " from the Gold Coast agrees. 

 It is somewhat intermediate in colour between the last men- 

 tioned and the specimens from Nigeria. Other specimens Nos. 

 2849 HS. " Ekhimi or the smaller Okan " from S. Nigeria 

 and 2802 HS. " Denya ; Odenya " from Gold Coast differ 

 in some respects. The description given by Hopkinson (1912, 

 p. 453 and fig. 18) accords fairly well except that none of 

 our specimens show anything approaching to a pore-ring, nor 

 is there any difference in the numbers of vessels between the 

 inner and outer zones of the ring. He states that the colour 

 is " brownish-grey." 



GENERAL CHARACTERS. A rather soft and light wood of uni- 

 form greyish-brown colour, which deepens a little on exposure. 

 It has some resemblance to the sap wood of the English Walnut. 

 Chevalier (1909, p. 182) says, ic Colour somewhat brown." 



Surface clean ; cool and dry to the touch, stringy and woolly 

 when sawn. Grain, coarse, open, comparatively straight in 

 tangential section, but very cross-grained on a radial section. 

 Shade of the transverse section slightly darker than that of 

 the others. Smell recalls that of. the husks of coco-nut when 

 damp. The structure on trans, sec. is very plain. Wood 

 very absorbent. Unwin says (1920, p. 48) that this wood 

 resembles Cylicodiscus (see that species) ; " the heartwood is of 

 a pretty light brown colour when dry, and appears to become 

 softer and lighter on drying " (p. 279). Our specimens also 

 resemble Cylicodiscus, or, more distantly, Afeelia. 



Transverse section. (Prepared with glass-paper. ) See PL III, 

 fig. 5. Parenchyma of one kind only : (a) vasicentric, visible 

 to the unaided eye on account of its quantity and pale 

 oatmeal colour ; sheaths the pores, often extending to lateral 

 wings, which are frequently rounded. Proportion of the 

 wood about one-third. In the dark zones the P. (a) tends 

 to stretch out into concentric lines and to join two or more 

 pore-groups together, but many, if not most, of the pores are 

 not winged. 



Vessels visible as perforations ; large, diminishing slightly 

 outwards to the ring-boundary, but increasing very much in 



