EAST INDIAN SATINWOOD 



Colour. Milk-white : yellowish-white : Citron. A sap-wood 

 tree. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 



Pores. Plainly visible, size 2, little variation : scattered : 

 few, 4-24 sq. mm. : mostly single or in compact nested or radial, 

 sub-divided groups of 2-11 : round : empty. 



Rays. Just visible, size 4, medium, uniform : equidistant, 

 rather less than the width of a large pore apart, slightly avoiding 

 them : rather numerous, 6-8 per mm. : much denser than the 

 ground-tissue : white. 



Rings. Doubtful : but numerous, fine, well-rounded con- 

 centric, white lines (see below). 



Ground-tissue. Very spongy and coarse : cells as large as 

 those of many Conifers : in regular, radial rows, size 7 (pore- 

 scale). 



Soft-tissue. Abundant in concentric arcs or fragments, 

 encircling and sometimes laterally joining the pores, size about 

 4 (Ray-scale) : white : darker and denser than the ground : 

 readily visible in transparent section and also to the naked eye in 

 the solid. 



Pith. Round with angular projections : 2-4 mm. diameter : 

 greyish. 



Radial Section. Lighter than the transverse, often with a 

 Citron tinge. 



Pores. Plainly visible with chambers 3-4 times as long as 

 wide. Rays very fine, inconspicuous, white, narrow flakes, just 

 visible. Rings not traceable. 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but the rays need the 

 lens and are extremely fine lines about -3 mm. high and broad 

 for their length. 



Type specimens from commercial sources and reputed with 

 reason, to be this species. 



No. 26. EAST INDIAN SATINWOOD. Chlor- 

 oxylon Swietenia. DC. 



Plate II. Fig. 17. 



Natural Order. Meliaceae (Wiesner places it amongst the 

 Rutacea?). 



Synonym. Swietenia Chloroxylon. Roxb. 



Sources of Supply. Central and South India, Ceylon, Coro- 

 mandel. 



Alternative Names. Colombo, Tamil or Ceylon Satinwood. 

 For those in the Indian vernacular see Gamble (37). " Muswal " 

 see specimen in No. 1 Museum, Kew. Indian Yellow Wood (in). 



29 



