Chap. 83] WOODS UNITED WITH GLUE. 427 



CHAP. 82. CARPENTERS' WOODS. 



The wood of the fir is strongest in a vertical 46 position : it 

 is remarkably well adapted for the pannels of doors, and all 

 kinds of in-door joiners' work, whether in the Grecian, the 

 Campanian, or the Sicilian style. The shavings of this wood 

 when briskly planed, always curl up in circles like the tendrils 

 of the vine. This wood, too, unites particularly well with 

 glue : it is used in this state for making vehicles, and is found 

 to split sooner in the solid parts than in a place where the 

 pieces have been glued together. 



CHAP. 83. (43.) WOODS UNITED WITH GLUE. 



Glue, too, plays one of the principal parts in all veneering 

 and works of marqueterie. For this purpose, the workmen 

 usually employ wood with a threaded vein, to which they give 

 the name of " ferulea," from its resemblance to the grain of 

 the giant fennel, 47 this part of the wood being preferred from 

 its being dotted and wavy. In every variety there are some 

 woods to be found that will not take the glue, and which re- 

 fuse to unite either with wood of the same kind or of any 

 other; the wood of the robur for example. Indeed, it is 

 mostly the case that substances will not unite unless they are 

 of a similar nature ; a stone, for instance, cannot be made to 

 adhere to wood. The wood of the service-tree, the yoke-elm, 

 the box, and, in a less degree, the lime, have a particular 

 aversion to uniting with the cornel. All the yielding woods 

 which we have already spoken 48 of as flexible readily adapt 

 themselves to every kind of work ; and in addition to them, 

 the mulberry and the wild fig. Those which are moderately 

 moist are easily sawn and cut, but dry woods are apt to give 

 way beyond the part that is touched by the saw ; while, on 

 the other hand, the green woods, with the exception of the 

 robur and the box, offer a more obstinate resistance, filling the 

 intervals between the teeth of the saw with sawdust, and 

 rendering its edge uniform and inert ; it is for this reason 

 that the teeth are often made to project right and left in turns, 



46 The resistance that Woods offer when placed vertically is in the same 

 ratio as that presented by them when employed horizontally. This para- 

 graph is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. hi. c. 4, and B. v. cc. 6, 7, 8. 



« Ferula. 48 In c. 77. 



