BLACK IRONWOOD 



Grain. Very fine, dense, even and smooth. Surface dull. 

 Bark. Brownish-grey, about J-J inch thick, fissured into 

 narrow, fibrous, thick-scaled ridges (49). 



Uses, etc. Turnery, small articles of fancy-ware, such as pen- 

 holders : a wood of very pretty figure : turns very well : splits 

 badly, or rather crumbles under the knife. 



Authorities. Nordlinger (86), vol. iii. p. 25. Hough (49), pt. 

 viii. p. 29. Mathieu (69), p. 249. Wiesner.(i3i), L. 12, p. 996. 



Not easily confused with any other wood. 



Colour. Yellowish-brown with varied bands of white passing 

 through brown to black. Heart-wood not sharply defined from 

 the yellowish sap-wood. " No apparent sap-wood " (69). 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 



Pores. Very small yet visible, fine, size 5, little variation : 

 uniformly distributed : very many, 100-150 per sq. mm. : mostly 

 in radial groups of 2-5 pores : a loosely branched arrangement 

 may be discerned amongst the pores, which are joined by soft- 

 tissue. 



Rays. Need lens, size 5, fine, uniform : equidistant, short : 

 very many, 10-12 per mm. : yellow or golden : less dense than 

 the ground-tissue : not avoiding the pores, about a pore-width 

 apart. 



Rings. Very indistinct, not concentric with the dark bands : 

 boundary, a zone with more crowded pores contrasted with a 

 slightly less crowded one : contour rounded but irregular. 



Soft-tissue. Abundant but difficult to make out : encircling 

 the pores and joining them. It occupies a large proportion of 

 the transverse surface. 



Radial Section. Pores exceedingly fine : rings imperceptible, 

 but the colour bands very striking. Rays imperceptible even 

 with lens. 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but the rays are still more 

 difficult to make out, being very minute lines. 



Type specimens from commercial sources, not authenticated, 

 but without doubt this species. 



No. 137. BLACK IRONWOOD. Olea laurifolia. 



Lam. 



Plate X. Fig. 86. 



Natural Order. Oleaceae. 



Synonyms. O. intermedia, Tausch. O. undulata, Jacq^ 

 Alternative Names. Tamboti (12). Igqwanxe (61). 

 Source of Supply. South Africa. 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 73J lbs. per 

 cu. ft. (My specimen is 55% sap-wood and 45% only of heart- 



157 



