THE TIMBERS OF COMMERCE 



wards, tapering inwards only : about 2 per mm. : red : coarsely 

 cellular : gently undulating yet direct. 



Rings. Vague : more readily perceptible in the solid : bound- 

 ary a zone of rather more closely-packed pores : contour gently 

 undulating. 



Soft-tissue. Encircling the pores. All the ground-tissue is 

 more or less spongy. 



Pith. Rounded or bluntly-lobed. 



Radial Section. Of great beauty owing to the large flakes of 

 silver-grain, which are red in colour, the rays being often as much 

 as £ inch deep : the rings are not traceable. 



Tangential Section. The meshes of the ground-tissue resemble 

 the fibres of a Loofah, or as if the rays were threaded through 

 a hank of flax. The pores are less visible than in the radial sec. 

 and the rays are less striking but still prominent and are linear 

 rather than spindle-shaped. 



Type specimens authenticated by the Forest Officer to the 

 Government of Natal. 



No. 129. BULLETWOOD. Mimusops globosa. 



Gaertn. 

 Plate X. Fig. 83. 



Natural Order. Sapotacese. 



Synonym. Mmiusops Balata. Crueg. Sapota Muelleri, Lind. 



Alternative Names. Balata : Bully-tree : Bollitree. Melk- 

 hout (see below) in South Africa. Balata rouge in Surinam : 

 possibly Pferdefleischholz (131). Balata saignant : Balata des 

 Galibis (21). Barome : Barueh : Purgo in Brazil (99). 



Sources of Supply. British Guiana. West Indies. 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 63^-67 J lbs. cu. 

 ft. Hardness Grade 1, compare Ebony. Smell and taste none. 

 Burns well with much crackling but no smell : embers glow in 

 still air. Solution with water deep crimson. 



Grain. Moderately fine but open. Surface of the ground 

 bright. 



Bark. ? 



Authorities. Wiesner (131), vol. vi. p. 131. Charpentier (21), 

 p. 156. Saldanha da Gama (99). 



Uses, etc. " Windmill-arms, posts, house-building, . . . very 

 durable, stands exposure, suffers from teredo and worms, . . . 

 polishes well" (78). 



Colour. Deep red or flesh-red heart-wood not sharply defined 

 from the brown sap-wood. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section: — 



Pores. Prominent from their masses, size 2-3, little variation . 



148 



