THE TIMBERS OF COMMERCE 



No. 39. BASTARD BULLET-WOOD. Humiria 

 floribunda. Mart. 



Part IV. Fig. 28. 



Natural Order. Humiriaceae. 



Synonyms. H. arenaria, Guill. H. elliptica, Klotsch. H. 

 laurina, Klotsch. H. mutiflora, Pritz. H. parviflora, A. Juss. 

 H. surinamensis, Miq. (Humiria = Humirium). 



Alternative Names. Couramira : Nieri : Turanira in Brazil 

 (99). Redwood. Towaronero (78) Bastard bully : Umiri (76), 

 in the Amazonas region and the North Provinces of Brazil. 



Sources of Supply. Tropical America, Brazil, British Guiana. 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 74^ lb. per 

 cu. ft. Hardness Grade 2, compare Boxwood. Smell or taste 

 none. Solution colourless. Burns with a lively spluttering 

 flame, embers glow in still air. 



Grain. Moderately coarse on a radial section, but fine on a 

 tangential section. Surface lustrous, smooth and cold to the 

 touch like Boxwood. 



Uses, etc. " House-frames, wheel-spokes, considered superior 

 to Greenheart. Plentiful in British Guiana, and may be met 

 with in logs 90 ft. long by 20 in. square free of sap-wood " (78). 



Authorities. McTurk (78), No. 14. Miers {76). Boulger (12). 

 Saldanha da Gama (99). 



Colour. Heart-wood, light red with an orange tinge, or red- 

 dish-orange : well defined from the brownish-white sap-wood, 

 which is about 1 inch wide. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 



Pores. Pores in the solid wood, conspicuous from the white 

 colour, size 3-2 : medium, not much variation except within the 

 groups : uniformly scattered : few, 0-6 per mm. : mostly single, 

 but some pairs or threes or even fives radially disposed. The 

 thyloses which fill the pores look like subdivisions of the pores : 

 the latter increase in size as the tree ages, i.e. from the pith out- 

 wards. 



Rays. Need lens, size 5-6, of one size only, uniform : equi- 

 distant : rather less than a large pore-width apart, running 

 round them : denser and lighter in colour than the ground- 

 tissue : numerous, 8-13 per mm. : undulating. 



Rings. Clear if indicated by the regularly occurring con- 

 centric lines of denser wood, but these sometimes run into one 

 another or fade awav. 



Soft-tissue. Abundant in fine concentric lines equalling the 

 rays in breadth, spacing and colour : size 5 . (ray scale) : 

 numerous 9-1 1 per mm., regular in contour, but dentate between 

 the rays with which they form a regular and beautiful net-work. 



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