300 THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 



colour and its standing qualities would fit it very well for special uses, 

 and it should be a good wood for turning. Troup reports its use for axe 

 handles, but it should be used as a decorative cabinet and furniture 

 wood. 



The pores are rather scarce and very small, and so formed as to mark 

 concentric lines at irregular intervals. The medullary rays are very fine, 

 clear, distinct, and parallel, equidistant and numerous. There is a fine 

 mottle running through the grain. 



Wallaba. Eperua falcata, Aubl. Weight, 62 lbs. (Stone and Freeman). 

 British Guiana. 



Stone and Freeman describe this as " a purplish- red wood, which 

 bleeds crimson gum exceedingly freely ; surface very sticky, readily 

 collecting the dust and becoming unpleasant to see or touch ; very hard. 

 Sphts very easily, straight, and fairly cleanly ; takes nails badly ; rather 

 easy to saw ; planes moderately hard and well. Very troublesome to 

 polish, as it smears. It should prove a valuable wood for export on 

 account of its hardness and resistance to decay." 



Baterden mentions that it has been used largely of late years for 

 telegraph and electrical poles in Barbadoes and Trinidad. 



Walnut. Juglans regia, Linn. Weight, European, 40-48 lbs. ; N.W. 

 Himalayas, 41 lbs. ; Sikkim, 33 lbs. (average) (Gamble). Great 

 Britain, France, Italy, Turkey, Caucasia, India, China. 



SuppUes of this familiar wood reach England from all the above- 

 named countries with the exception of China, while from India there 

 has as yet been scarcely any commercial export. It has been imported 

 in the form of logs, round and square, burrs, planks, boards, and veneers. 

 In colour it varies from fight greyish-brown to dark brown, often 

 traversed by black and golden or golden-red streaks and stripes, or it is 

 handsomely mottled and shows a wavy roey grain. 



Although walnut requires some time to season, and shrinks consider- 

 ably during the process, yet when subsequently exposed to drying or 

 moistening influences it stands excellently, and it is exceedingly difficult, 

 if not impossible, to find another wood possessing this attribute to the 

 same degree. For this reason it is the best wood known for gun and rifle 

 stocks. After the rifle stock has been cut out and shaped, the wood 

 retains its form and shape exactly, so that the rifle barrel and locks will 

 drop into their position and rest, without bending the locks or throwing 

 the barrel out of the straight. No variation in climate affects this. 

 Exhaustive experiments made by Mr. PhiUips, the Superintendent of 

 the Small Arms Factory at Enfield, have shown the great difficulty of 

 procuring any other kind of timber capable of enduring the same test. 



