22 THE WOODS OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 
ing, as well as in the manufacture of furniture. In order to 
polish it, the pores are filled with some substance, such as bees’ 
wax, to close the pores; after this it takes a high polish. It 
varies in quality with the ground on which it grows. The best ash 
used in Fredericton is brought from the county of Carleton ; there 
it attains a height of 40 feet or more, and a diameter of 2 feet. 
It comes into leaf very late in the season, and loses its foliage early. 
The wood of the black ash, though inferior to the white in 
strength and durability, is nevertheless remarkably tough, and, 
owing to the facility with which after pounding it may be separ- 
ated into strips and ribands, is especially preferred to other 
woods by the Indians for the manufacture of baskets, of which 
handsomely ornamented ones are made by the Tobique tribe. 
Nertie Faminy (Urticacee). 
Sus-orpER I.—Tue Exm Trise (Ulmacee). 
THE ELM (Ulmus Americana, L.). 
Though comparatively restricted in its distribution, there are, 
nevertheless, few trees in New Brunswick which, when the proper 
conditions are accorded, exceed the elm in the length or vigour of 
its growth, certainly none which can compare with it for grace 
and beauty. On the uplands it is comparatively rare, and even 
when occurring seldom attains to great size, but in river valleys, 
and especially along the rich and level intervales * bordering the 
St John river and its tributaries, it is much more abundant and 
often large, its beautiful feathered trunks and plume-like branches 
serving greatly to enhance the beauty of the scenery. The stem 
occasionally girths 20 feet. 
The wood of the elm is both strong and tough, and therefore 
well adapted for the making of ships’ blocks, hubs of carriage- 
wheels, and kindred uses, though said to be inferior for these 
purposes to the English elm. It is also used in making the flooring 
of ships’ decks, though difficult to work, the peculiarity of the 
grain requiring it to be planed crosswise rather than lengthwise. 
Its value in New Brunswick, however, is almost solely as an 
ornamental tree, quite equalling if not excelling in this respect its 
European relative. It is readily transplanted, hardy when in 
favourable situations, and of rapid growth. 
* Holm in England ; Haugh in Scotland. 
