100 THE EXHIBITION AT PARIS. 



One species of American Oak, Quercus alba> is said to be fit for ship- 

 building, but is so rare that the English Government has already re- 

 served all the trees for the Royal Navy. Among the most interesting 

 productions of the forest is also the Maple-sugar, of which is produced 

 in Canada and the United States annually about 40,000,000 pounds. 

 The Maple-trees made use of for this purpose are very soon destroyed 

 in consequence of the loss of their sap ; and as there is no cultivation 

 of them in northern America, it is to be feared that the Maple-tree 

 will soon be exterminated. Amongst the above-mentioned specimens 

 are some beautiful kinds fit for joiners' work, as the wild Bird-Cherry, 

 the watered Maple, the Black Walnut. In general the woods resemble 

 those of northern Europe, without possessing the beauty of our Walnut- 

 tree; they cannot be compared with Mahogany, or the tropical and 

 Australian timber. 



Australia, viz. the colony of New South Wales, exhibited a collection 

 of 262 woods, 92 of which were botanically determined. There is a 

 new world ; plants which we are accustomed to see like feeble insigni- 

 ficant specimens in our greenhouses appear there with colossal trunks ; 

 for instance, Eucalyptus, Podocarpus, Melaleuca, Doryphora, and some 

 Cedar-like trees. Their timber may be classed among the finest in the 

 world, and will play an important part as regards furniture-manufacture. 

 Many of them have not only the finest grain and the gayest colour, but 

 moreover a natural fragrance ; for example, a species of Acacia wood, 

 exceedingly finely watered with light-yellow and dark-brown, smells 

 like violet, "Bois de Violet." There grow trunks of Eosewood of 36 

 to 72 inches English in diameter, and 80 to 100 feet high. British 

 Guiana likewise has exhibited magnificent kinds of wood ; amongst it 

 is a tree, Mora exceha, that promises well for ship-building ; it grows 

 to about 100 to 150 feet in height, is straight, and furnishes a very 

 durable timber. 



There are, in the Indian Department, specimens of Teak, belonging 

 to the Order of the Verbenacece, said to surpass every other timber. It 

 grows in the East Indies and Ceylon, but will also thrive in the southern 



France 



Ed.] 



buildin 



duras, the timber of which is not so heavy as Oak-wood. Ships built 

 of it possess a fifth part more buoyancy than those of Oak. By this 

 exhibition of timber from her different colonies, England has shown 



