Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/165

 CHAPTER XXIII.

AFRICA. African Oak tree, the African Teak, or Mahogany timber of commerce—for it is known under a variety of names—is probably the Sivietenia Senegalensis, or S. Khaya, the produce of which is brought from Sierra Leone, and appears to form a link between the Oak of Europe and America and the Teak of India, partaking largely of the characteristics of both species.

The tree is of straight growth, and the height, as estimated from the logs imported, must be at least 30 to 40 feet clear of the branches, with a circumference of from 7 to 8 feet. This wood is of a dark red colour, very hard, strong, rigid, and difficult to work or cleave; it has a fine, close, straight grain, is of remarkable solidity, has no injurious heart-shake, and shakes of the cup or star kind are extremely rare in it; the centre wood, about the earlier concentric circles, is close and very compact, differing less from the outer layers in texture than in most other trees. In seasoning this timber