56 GUIDE TO TIMBERS OF NIGERIA 



Parenchyma (a) of a lighter colour ; joins the pores into 

 oblique lines rather than into festoons, and very few are really 

 joined ; colour lighter than that of the rays, nearly white. 



Vessels visible as perforations ; a marked tendency to oblique 

 lines ; 4^6 per sq. mm. 



Rays visible with the lens, and even just with the unaided 

 eye on account of their large size ; intervals equal to about 

 three times the breadth of a ray ; they suggest silky threads ; 

 number per mm. 8-10. 



Rings well denned ; boundary a dark line or band ; the 

 whole of the ground is darker than the rays. The contour is 

 undulating precisely as in T. superba (see that species), 

 which seems to confirm this feature as a character. No resin 

 globules except in apparently traumatic tissue. 



Density, No. 3005, 0-504, or about 31 J lb. per cu. ft. 



Casearia sp. 



Flacourtiacese. Gen. No. 2543. 



LOCALITIES. Nigeria. As to the genus from the Tropics 

 to Delagoa Bay (Thonner, p. 372). 



As no precise species is mentioned, other details cannot be 

 given. The only Casearia mentioned by Unwin (1920, p. 230) 

 is the " Ebo " of the Yorubas. Thonner, however, says that 

 there are twenty African species. 



Description of the wood from a specimen No. 3013, without 

 native name, sent by the Government of Nigeria (Empire 

 Timber Exhibition, 1920). 



GENERAL CHARACTERS. A moderately hard and heavy wood 

 of a nut-brown colour with darker bands relieved by lighter 

 striae. It somewhat resembles Teak. Surface clean, dry, not 

 cold to the touch. Grain, coarse, open, fairly straight. Shade 

 of the transverse section perhaps a little lighter than that of 

 the others on account of the pale soft-tissue (parenchyma). 

 Smell rather unpleasant when wetted, recalling that of fuller's- 

 earth. Not likely to soil. 



STRUCTURE. Transverse section. (Prepared with glass- 

 paper.) See PI. Ill, fig. 6. 



Parenchyma of two kinds : (a) vasicentric and (b) concentric 

 (see further). Parenchyma (a) visible to the unaided eye as 

 narrow sheaths around the pores, but not joining them (except 



