TREES OF AMERICA. 167 



" Uncle Philip it seems to me that it is a 

 great pity to cut down such a fine looking 

 tree, unless the wood is useful." 



"It is useful for one purpose, although 

 very coarse-grained and porous, and neither 

 hard nor tough. You know what docks and 

 wharves are ; and you have seen that wharves 

 are generally made of timber : now there is 

 in sea-water a species af worm that eats 

 wood ; and these worms are sadly destructive 

 to wharves, by boring holes into the timbers ; 

 I have seen logs taken out of wharves, that 

 were bored through and through in every 

 direction, so that pieces of them looked very 

 much like pieces of honey-comb." 



" And will not these worms eat the wood 

 of the cabbage-tree ?" 



" No ; I suppose there is something in it 

 that they do not like, for they have never been 

 known to injure wharves made of it." 



" Uncle Philip, does the cabbage-tree grow 

 in England ?" 



" No, my boy ; but why do you ask ?" 



"Because I have read about very large docks 

 and wharves there, and I was thinking that 

 the worms must give them a great deal of 



