USES OF WOOD. 193 



useful of all the varied purposes to which it is 

 put. When green it is much harder than the 

 wood of many other timber trees. Its whitish 

 colour when dry and fit for use is well known, 

 but it is not so generally known that it becomes 

 reddish when it has been grown in good soil in 

 level positions. For all kinds of cabinet purposes 

 it is employed ; for chairs, sometimes for tables, 

 for bedsteads- where iron or brass has not yet 

 superseded the old fashion for carriage-panels, 

 for wooden shovels, for sieve-rims, for wooden 

 screws, and for many of the articles manufactured 

 by the turner and the joiner, including the handles 

 of tools, it is extensively used. 



Many are the varieties of the Barberry, but 

 we will notice only one representative the Com- 

 mon Barberry (Berberis vulgaris). The utility of 

 its wood, however, is not very great, though 

 it is hard, but with its hardness it is brittle. 

 Yet its colour, or rather the colour of its inner 

 bark, being yellow, it produces a yellow dye, 

 which has its use in the arts of industry. 



Depending on the place of its growth, the wood 

 of the Birch (Betula alba) is more or less dur- 



o 



