BOTANY IN RELATION TO STUDY OF TIMBER. 41
1928 it was declared illegal to sell as Mahogany any wood other
than that obtained from a Meliaceous tree. The laudable example
of the French authorities in introducing new colonial woods
under entirely new names, and with a description of their working
properties, is one that might be more widely emulated. Thus
Gaboon Mahogany is exploited in France as Okoume, one of
its native names.
Walnuts. In 1929 at a conference of the Walnut woods
industry held at Chicago, the question of the correct use of the
term Walnut was discussed, and it was resolved to restrict the
term to woods of the genus Juglans : special trade names were
suggested for the commoner timbers which appear in the market
as Walnut. Among these are the West African Lovoa
Klaineana, which is sometimes known as African Walnut, and is
a member of the Meliaceae; Queensland Walnut, produced by
a member of the Lauraceae, Endiandra Palmerstoni; East Indian
Walnut, the wood of a Leguminous tree, Albizzia Lebbek ; and
Satin Walnut, produced by Liquidambar Styrachiflua, a member
of the Hamamelidaceae. Here again there is little likelihood
of the expert confusing these woods with Walnut, except perhaps
at times Lovoa and Endiandra, but in any case a knowledge
of their anatomy would enable them to be distinguished beyond
all doubt. In any true Walnut a transverse. section, cleaned
with a sharp penknife, will show numerous vessels, not infre-
quently in echelon arrangement, narrow rays, and numerous
fine bands running from ray to ray : this is the parenchyma.
In African Walnut these concentric lines of parenchyma are
never seen, its vessels are not in any special arrangement and
it is difficult to detect where one season's growth ends and
the next begins, a feature presenting no difficulty in true Walnut.
If Queensland Walnut be freshly sawn its smell alone will
enable it to be distinguished from any Walnut or substitute ;
in any case, the more or less regular distribution of the vessels,
and the presence of concentric parenchyma, usually in long
lines apparently at the end of each season's growth, is sufficient
as a distinguishing character. East Indian Walnut has larger
vessels and is altogether a coarser textured wood : the lens
reveals the vessels in echelon arrangement, surrounded by thick
circles of parenchyma. In Liquidambar, apart from its colour,
which is pale brown compared with the dark greyish-brown