Reviews of Books. 207 



we are acquainted, except if it be its congeaer, the Xor^ay maple, to act 

 as a shelter or break-wind in exposed situations. It is used in the north 

 of Ent^land and in Scotland for machinery and for the ends of herring 

 barrels, for which it is preferred to that of any other by the coopers, and 

 for which purpose it is fit as soon as it has attained a diameter of four or 

 five inches, which it frequently does in favourable soils in the course of 

 twenty years. 



The wood is firm, of a close, compact grain, susceptible of a high 

 polish, and easily worked. It is not subject to be worm-eaten, or to warp, 

 and works well in the turning lathe. In England it has generally been 

 applied to minor purposes and indoor articles, such as cheese and cider 

 presses, tables for common use, mangles, &c. ; and when wooden dishes and 

 spoons were in common use, they were mostly made of this wood ; it is 

 now, however, extensively used, when of sufficient scantling, for machinery, 

 also in printing and bleaching works for beetling beams, and in cast-iron 

 foundries for making patterns ; for all of which purposes it brings a 

 high price. The roots, being frequently beautifully and curiously veined, 

 afford a valuable material for inlaying and other cabinet-work. As a 

 fuel, it is unequalled for the quantity of heat it throws out, and the char- 

 coal made from it is of excellent quality, and surpasses that of the beech 

 in the proportion of 1,647 to 1,G00. An experiment made by Sir T. D. 

 Lauder showed that 116 of sap yielded 1 part of sugar, very sweet, but of 

 a peculiar flavour. The sap is also sometimes made into a wine, but is 

 inferior to that extracted from the birch. 



The best soil adapted for the sycamore, and in which it attains its 

 greatest size, appears to be a rich dry loam with a mixture of gravel. It 

 grows, however, in almost any soil not saturated with moisture, and occa- 

 sionally attains a fair size in thin and inferior soils. It is of rapid growth, 

 and reaches its usual height in sixty years ; the wood, however, continues 

 to improve till it is eighty or a hundred years old, and it frequently con- 

 tinues undecayed for another century. 



There is, or was, a sycamore in Mutford Park, near Morpeth, Northum- 

 berland, 11 feet in length before the first great ramifications, measuring 

 near to the ground 22 feet in circumference, and 16 feet a little below the 

 branches, and containing 327 feet of timber. At Twizell the sycamore, 

 25 years planted, is 35 feet high and 12 inches in diameter. 



The author discourses in a similar instructive and interesting manner on 

 the various kinds of timber trees grown in this country, and then o-ives an 

 excellent essay on the strength or bearing power of timber in as plain and 

 popular a manner as the nature of the subject will permit of, so that the 

 merest novice may understand it and profit thereby. In the chapter on 

 the selection of timber he remarks, — " Freedom from knots and sap, 

 and a straight close grain, are qualities to be desired in wood ; but as 

 trees cannot grow without sap and knots, the aim of the buyer must be 

 to select his wood as free as possible from these defects. Deals, &c., 

 should be selected square at the edges. When they are otherwise, or 

 * w^aney,' as it is termed, it generally shows that they have been manufac- 



