APPENDIX IV 311 



three by tangential walls. This type of wood, of a grey or light-brown colour^ 

 is characteristic of the genus Ficus ; and the pith-rays, neither very numerous 

 nor very broad, though distinctly visible under a lens, are characteristic of 

 the whole Order Urticdcece, considered in a wide sense — i.e., including the 

 Bread-fruits (Artocdrpus), Mulberries (Morus), and Elms (Ulmus). (See 

 Plate XVI.). To this so-called "Fig type" belong many tropical Legumi- 

 nosce, such as the Ponga [Pongdmia glabra), figured by the late Professor 

 Marshall Ward^ and the Jhand {Prosopis spicigera), figured by Mr. Gamble.^ 



Very similar is that of the Bastard Bullet-wood (Humiria floribunda), 

 figured on p. 46. This wood, which belongs to a distinct Order, the Humiri- 

 <icecB> is characterized — ^in addition to its distinct false rings of darker wood, 

 which sometimes run into one another, and sometimes die out laterally — ^by 

 fine, concentric, " dentate " rings of soft tissue ; by numerous, equidistant 

 and uniformly fine pith-rays, with an undulating course bending round the 

 pores, and forming a regular rectangular mesh-work, with the rings of soft 

 tissue ; and by its comparatively few, uniformly distributed, medium-sized, 

 w^hite pores, which are sometimes in radial groups of two to five, and are filled 

 with thyloses. 



Passing to those timbers in which the false rings are more obscure or less 

 regular, a group of dense, heavy, dark-coloured woods from India and other 

 tropical countries, including the Ebonies {Diospyros), in the Order Ehendcece^ 

 many Leguminosoe, and other series, we have selected three types (Plates V. 

 to VII.). Padouk {Pterocdrpus mars'dpmm (Plate V.) is a yellowish-\rown, 

 leguminous wood from Southern India, P. indicus and P. macrocdrpics, from 

 Burma, and P. dalbergioides, from the Andamans, being a rich Mahogany- 

 like red. Our plate shows irregular zones of darker wood, with more or less 

 concentric bands of soft tissue, varying very much in width, but completed 

 by fine wavy lines, and made up of elements of rather larger transverse 

 diameter than those in the rest of the wood. The pith-rays are very fine, 

 numerous, uniform, and equidistant ; and the large pores are not numerous, 

 but are uniformly scattered, varying somewhat in size, though mostly con- 

 siderably wider than the space between two pith-rays, often subdivided 

 radially into groups of two or three, or even as many as eight, and without 

 thyloses. 



Plate VI. — Cassia Fistula, the Indian Laburnum, is in many respects a 

 similar wood. It is very hard, heavy, and dark-coloured, with numerous 

 very fine, uniform, slightly bent pith-rays, appearing light against the dark 

 hard tissue ; and white, irregularly concentric, but anastomosing, bands of 

 soft tissue surrounding the pores. These pores are not numerous, are uni- 

 formly distributed, varying somewhat in size, but never very large, often 

 radially subdivided, and often filled with resin. 



Plate VII. — Gudiacum offldndle, the Lignum- vitse of Tropical America, 

 represents another Natural Order, the Zygophylldcece, It appears to have 



^ Timber and some, of its Diseases, Fig. 7. 

 2 Op. cit., Plate VL. Fig. 6. 



