612 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD. 



for pressing linen, of the same species, and also of sycamore, 

 service-tree and beech. Turned legs and other pieces for 

 ornamental furniture are chiefly of walnut-wood. Hat-moulds 

 are made of lime or alder-wood ; skittles of hornbeam, pear 

 and service-wood; bowls, of lignum-vitse (Gu-aiacitm); shuttles, 

 of boxwood ; reels for thread, of birch and aspen- wood ; spools, 

 chiefly of birch [of which 5,000,000 feet of spool-bars are 

 imported annually into Britain from America ; birch, beech 

 and sycamore grown in Britain also are used. Tr.]; pipe- 

 stems, of apple, cherry, plum, maple, etc. ; walking- sticks 

 and umbrella-handles of oak or ash coppice-shoots, white-thorn, 

 vine-stock, dog- wood, fruit-trees, and many exotic woods such 

 as those of olive, greenheart, etc. ; cask-taps, of pear, apple, 

 yew, larch and Cembran pine ; bungs are made of split oak- 

 wood and inferior sprucewood. 



Wherever these articles are made in factories, the demand 

 on neighbouring forests may be considerable ; as, for instance, 

 for spools, wooden buttons, bungs, handles for tools, etc. 



SECTION XV. PLAITED WOOD-WORK. 



This section may be divided into basket-work, and plaited 

 wood- work properly so called. 



1. Basket- Work. 



The basket-maker prepares wares of all shapes and dimen- 

 sions, from coarse hampers, fish-traps, etc., to the finest kinds 

 of baskets. The materials used are osiers, chiefly of Salix 

 viminalis, pwpurea, rubra, amygdalina, triandra, Lambertiana, 

 pruinosa, etc., also shoots of birch and of climbing plants, and 

 the finer roots of Scots pine, mountain-pine or larch. The 

 best osiers are thin yearling shoots, free from branches, about 

 six to eight feet long, with white, soft wood ; one or other kind 

 of willow is preferred, according to locality, but S. ri mi mil in 

 and amygdalina, purpurca and rubra are the best esteemed. 



For superior basket-work, the osiers are peeled, which is done 

 immediately after they have been cut, when the sap is rising. 



The osiers may, however, be peeled, if they are plunged into 

 water at a temperature of from 100 to 120 Fahr., without 



