THE WOODS OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 19 
poses. It is much used for common bedsteads, tables, chairs, 
bureaus, and other cheap furniture. In building it is an excellent 
material for flooring, and may be used for any part not exposed 
to dampness. It lasts well in the flat of a ship’s floor, and has 
sufficient elasticity to serve as oars, which are almost equal to 
those of white ash ” (Emerson’s Report, p. 486). 
There is a considerable quantity of this wood growing on the 
lands of the New Brunswick Land and Lumber Company on the 
St John river. It occurs on the edge of low land, but does not 
grow thickly in any place. 
ROCK OR SUGAR MAPLE (Acer saccharinum, L.). 
This is the largest and finest of the maples, and is the most 
valuable in its economic applications. Though varying greatly 
in aspect according to the special conditions under which it has 
grown, it is in all cases a remarkable and sometimes even a 
majestic tree, beautiful alike for form and foliage, the contour of 
the leaf being remarkably graceful. It is partial to rich, deep, 
and gravelly loams, and, except directly along the seaboard, is a 
very common upland tree throughout the Province. Its ordinary 
height is 50 or 60 feet, though rising sometimes to 70 or 80 
feet. 
Tt is of rapid growth and capable of ready cultivation, but 
when in open ground and unprotected is rather easily overthrown 
and subject to somewhat premature decay. ‘‘ For purposes of 
art,” says Emerson, “no native wood possesses more beauty, or a 
greater variety of appearance than that of the rock maple. It is 
hard, close-grained, smooth, and compact, and capable of taking 
and retaining an exquisite polish. The straight-grained or common 
variety has a resemblance to satin wood, but is of a deeper colour. 
The variety called curled hard maple, caused by the sinuous course 
of the fibres, gives a changeable surface of alternate light and 
shade, exhibiting an agreeable and striking play of colours. But 
the most remarkable variety is the Bird’s-eye Maple. This is so 
called from a contortion of the fibres at irregular intervals, 
throwing out a variable point of light, and giving an appearance 
of a roundish projection rising from within a slight cavity, and 
bearing a distant resemblance to the eye of a bird. All the 
varieties, particularly the last, are used in the manufacture of 
articles of furniture—wardrobes, chairs, bedsteads, bureaus, port- 
able desks, frames of pictures, etc, The straight-grained variety 
