CLASSIFICATION OF HARD- WOODS. 53 



(ii) False rings obscure : wood dense, heavy, red, brown, 

 purple or black. Including the chief hardest woods 

 of India and other tropical countries, such as the 

 Ebonies, Diospyros, Ironwood, Mfaua ftrrea, Pynkado, 

 Xylia dolabri/ormis, Anjan, Hardwickia bindta. Rose- 

 woods, DalUrgw, Pterocdrpus, etc., Babul, Acacia 

 ardbica and other species, such, perhaps, as the 

 Australian Myall, A. homalophylla, Saj, Termindlia 

 tomentosa, Bandara, Lagerstrwmia parvifdlia, Lignum 

 vitae, Gudiacum, etc. Olive (Olea europtea), a close, 

 compact, yellow wood, characteristically mottled 

 with brown, with uniformly scattered vessels, may, 

 perhaps, be classed here. 

 2. Without false rings. 



a. Soft, with no distinct heart. Silk-cotton, Bombax, Mango, 



Mang-ifera, etc. 



b. Harder, denser, usually with distinct heart. Siris, 



Albizzia Lebbek, Eng, Dipterocdrpus tuberculdtus, etc. 



B. With distinct annual rings. 



1. Ring-porous : vessels in spring wood large or numerous, those 



in summer wood small or few and scattered. 

 a. Vessels in the spring wood larger. 



(i) Vessels in tree-like or dendritic groups, or in circles, 



often scattered in the inner part of the rings. 

 * Slightly dendritic or concentric : pores in summer 

 wood minute, regularly distributed, singly or in 

 groups, or in short peripheral, but never radial 

 lines. 

 I Pith-rays minute, scarcely distinct. 



Wood heavy and hard : vessels in summer wood 



not in clusters, or 2-4 together, 

 (a) Heartwood not yellow in radial section; con- 

 tinuous zone of pores in spring wood. Ash, 

 Frdadnus. 



