76 GUIDE TO TIMBERS OF NIGERIA 



of a greyish -white colour " (Comte de Briey, p. 114). " Bark 

 whitish marbled with grey" (Chev., p. 261). 



USES. Already well known on the English market. 

 " Canoes, pestles, rice-basins ; the best wood for sleepers ; 

 very durable and termite-proof; white ants make little pro- 

 gress in the sapwood ; some of the splendid Mup6 canoes are 

 made of this wood." There appears to be considerable difference 

 between the male and the female trees. The wood of the 

 former is the " darker, closer-grained and harder, and the 

 sapwood is not so wide " (Unwin, pp. 26, 71, 215 and 253). 

 Density, No. 3051, 0-676, or about 42J Ib. per cu. ft. 

 0750, 0-6 37J 



2191, 0-64 40 



3067, 0-73 451 



0328, 0-788 49 



Chevalier gives 0-721. 



Conservator's note. "A large deciduous tree of the mixed 

 deciduous forest, fairly plentiful in parts of Nigeria. The 

 timber is hard and durable, and is used more largely than any 

 other in this country." 



Illustrations. Hopkinson 1912, p. 456, fig. 22, tr. sec. x. 

 about 50. Fig. 23, ray in tang. sec. Fig. 24, ray-parenchyma 

 with crystals. 



Akoto. Not identified. 



Specimen No. 361 2 received from the Government of Nigeria 

 (Lagos). Our specimens marked " Akoto " from the Gold 

 Coast are quite unlike. 



A wood of medium weight and hardness, of a brownish- 

 yellow colour tinged with red, much resembling an inferior 

 Mahogany. Grain, coarse, open and considerably inclined. 

 Surface lustrous, dry and rather cool. Shade of the transverse 

 section considerably darker. Smell, slight if any, perhaps 

 recalling tan. Does not readily soil. 



STRUCTURE. Transverse section. (Prepared with glass- 

 paper.) 



Parenchyma of one kind only : (a) readily visible to the 

 unaided eye as sheaths surrounding the vessels and occasion- 

 ally extending to short wings (tangentially) and more rarely 

 uniting several vessels into more or less continuous lines ; 



