SAFFRAN-HOUT 



Pith. ? 



Radial Section. Rather lighter in colour and quite uniform : 

 pores rather coarse, but few and dull, being filled with thyloses : 

 rays just visible as minute hoary flakes : rings not clearly 

 traceable : soft-tissue needs lens and then appears like fine 

 "machine-ruling or hatching." 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but the pores are still less 

 numerous and much finer than in the radial section : rays ap- 

 pear as exceptionally fine white lines, one cell wide, and about 

 i"5 mm. high : the rings appear as inconspicuous loops with 

 ragged, hoary fringes. 



Type specimens authenticated by the Forest Officer to the 

 Government of British Guiana. 



No. 40. SAFFRAN-HOUT. Elaeodendron 

 croceum. D.C. 



Plate IV. Fig. 29. 



Natural Order. Celastrineae. 



Synonym. Cassine crocea O.K. (Boulger [15] in error). 



Alternative Names. Crocus-tree : Saffron : Safforan, in South 

 Africa. Umbomoana (20), in Zululand. Umbomvana (61). 



Sources of Supply. Natal and other parts of South Africa. 



Physical Characters, etc. Weight about 54 lb. per cu. ft. 

 Hardness Grade 3, compare Blackthorn. Smell and taste none 

 (perhaps faintly fragrant). Solution with water a beautiful 

 deep crimson, from good dark-coloured wood. Burns well, 

 embers glow in still air. 



Grain. Exceptionally fine and close. Surface bright. 



Bark. Leathery, smooth, not fissured, hard, about J inch 

 thick, purple within, covered by an orange-coloured skin having 

 minute lenticels. 



Uses, etc. " Furniture, boat-building, waggons, wood-engrav- 

 ing (the coarser kinds), excellent for turnery. Tough, solid, and 

 durable. Works well in everyway" (60). "Beams, planks, 

 furniture" (19). Easily confused with Assagai- wood ('Curtisea 

 faginea'). No. 120. 



Authorities. Nordlinger (86), vol. vii. p. 27. Laslett (60), 

 304. Ditto (61), 438. Cardrew (20). Cape Land Almanack 



(19)- 



Colour. Rosy red : reddish-yellow, well defined from the 

 paler and yellower sap-wood : quite uniform. 

 Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 

 Pores. Need lens, size 6, fine, little variation : evenly dis- 

 tributed, but collected into loose zones here and there : few, 

 about 45 per sq. mm. : easily confused in this section with the 



47 



