THE TIMBERS OF COMMERCE 



Grain. Very coarse and open. Surface lustrous and satiny. 



Bark. ? 



Authority (as to the vernacular name) the Governor of Lagos, 

 from whom the type specimen was received. This is not the 

 wood mentioned by Sir A. Moloney (Kew Bull., Feb., 1891, p. 41), 

 which is Chlorophora excelsa. 



Colour. Heart-wood deep brown. Sap-wood. ? 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 



Pores. Readily visible, large, size 1-2, few, 0-6 per mm. : 

 little variation in size except in the groups : evenly distributed, 

 connected by the soft-tissue into short, undulating, often 

 interrupted festoons : single or in short, sub-divided, radial 

 groups or clusters of as many as five pores : some with brown 

 contents. 



Rays. Visible though fine, size 5-6, uniform : equidistant, 

 a pore-width or less apart : many 4-8 per mm. : sometimes 

 avoiding the pores, weak : considerably lighter in colour and 

 denser than the ground-tissue. 



Rings. Visible but not conspicuous : boundary a clear, fine 

 line of hoary soft-tissue without contrast in the density of the 

 ground-tissue. 



Soft-tissue. Very abundant and prominent, the chief feature. 

 In light-brown, interrupted and waved (but scarcely cruciform) 

 festoons imbedding and connecting the pores, composed of 

 parallel rows of cells radially disposed. 



Pith.? 



Radial Section. Pores, very prominent and coarse often run- 

 ning out of parallel. Rays, readily visible by difference of 

 reflection not of colour : brown, shining almost metallic flakes. 

 Rings, very obscure, traceable as continuous, hoary lines. Soft- 

 tissue prominent as hoary continuations of the pores and as the 

 boundary-line : not equally prominent in all lights. 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but the rays appear as 

 inconspicuous lines (lens) about ro mm. high. 



No. 83. COCUS or COCOS WOOD. Brya 

 Ebenus. DC. 



Plate VI. Fig. 54. 

 Natural Order. Leguminoseae. 



Synonyms. Amerimnum Ebenus. Sw. Amerimnon Ebenus. 

 Sw. Aspalathus Ebenus. Linn. Brya leucoxylon. 



Alternative Names. Green Ebony : West Indian Ebony : 

 Jamaica Ebony : Cocoa-wood : Brown Ebony. Chichipate (12). 

 Granadillo : Granillo, and also a number of names of Spanish 

 origin supposed to refer to this wood, see Holtzapffel, (29). 



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