176 WOODS. 



(88) Yellow Sandal Wood. 



The heartwood of Santalum album, Linn. (N.O. Santalacese). 

 The wood exhibits the following structure : 



The medullary rays are one or two cells wide, the cells having 

 pitted walls and containing yellowish globules of volatile oil or 

 oleoiesin. 



The vessels are rather large and usually isolated or forming at 

 most small radial groups. Their walls bear numerous small 

 bordered pits. They also contain yellowish oleoresin, which is 

 most abundant in the vessels nearest the centre of the stem. 



The wood-fibres, which with the vessels constitute the bulk 

 of wood, have thick walls and obliquely pointed ends. They 

 bear scattered cleft pits, and also contain a little oleoresin 

 readily seen when the fibres are isolated. 



The wood parenchyma is small in amount. The cells of 

 which it is composed have moderately thick, pitted walls, and 

 are distributed in tangential rows one or two cells wide, often 

 forming irregular concentric rings. Some of them contain 

 oleoresin, others well-formed crystals of calcium oxalate. 



The diagnostic characters of powdered yellow sandal wood 

 are: 



(a) The volatile oil or oleoresin which is found in all the 

 elements. 



(b) The medullary rays one or two cells wide. 



(c) The vessels which are mostly isolated. 



(d) The ivood-fibres with obliquely pointed ends. 



