WALLABA 



Grain. Very coarse but more or less even as a large number 

 of the pores are filled. Surface dull : pores bright but not 

 shining : the wood soon becomes disagreeably sticky. 



Bark. Smooth, not fissured but apparently shelling off in 

 thin plates •" f to £ inch thick : grey or black. 



Uses, etc. " Chiefly for shingles^ which have been known to last 

 40 years — stands exposure under all circumstances : may be 

 met with in logs from 30 to 80 ft. long by 15 to 20 in. square 

 free of sap-wood" (78). Splits very easily and fairly cleanly. 



Authorities. Saldanha da Gama (99). Nordlinger (86), 

 vol. vii. p. 45. McTurk (78). Miers (3). 



Colour. Purplish-red heart-wood (like dried blood) sharply 

 defined from the dirty-white sap-wood. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 



Pores. Conspicuous, Size 2, moderate-sized : variable : 

 evenly distributed except where collected in a i-rowed ring of 

 small pores : few 2-9 per sq. mm. (in the pores-ring) : single 

 or from 2-5 in well-closed, radial, subdivided groups : appear 

 light-red in the solid wood : occasional amber or red contents 

 which exude copiously. 



Rays. Clearly visible, medium; size 3 or 2-3, uniform : equi- 

 distant, less than the width of a large pore apart : gently un- 

 dulating but not avoiding even the larger pores : numerous, 

 7-8 per mm. : unusually long, rarely tapering if at all : very 

 much coarser than the ground- tissue (exceptionally so). 



Rings. Clear, the boundary a single row of small pores with 

 wide-meshed tissue between them : contour regular. 



Soft-tissue. In zones in the pore ring : Size 1 (ray-scale) : 

 also narrowly encircling the pores and in isolated irregular 

 patches. 



Flecks. The objects I take to be flecks are long, narrow, 

 bands tapering each end, o - 25 mm. wide by 5-15 mm. long. 

 They are dense and brown. 



Pith. ? 



Radial Section. Pores long, conspicuous grooves having 

 chambers to 0*5 mm. long, which are easily visible to the naked 

 eye ; a drop of resin in each. Rays prominent, purple 

 flakes, a little deeper in colour than the ground. Neither the 

 rings nor the soft-tissue are traceable. 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but not quite so light in 

 colour and with more red streaks. The rays are minute, faint, 

 brown lines about f inch high. 



Type specimen authenticated by the Forest Officer to the 

 Government of British Guiana. From a log sent to the Colonial 

 and Indian Exhibition. 



89 



