APPENDIX 



KEY FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF SOME COMMON 

 HARDWOODS l 



IN order to use the following key as a means of identifying 

 woods whose names you do not know, you should first acquire 

 some practice in tracing to the right place in the key specimens 

 of wood of which you already know the names. Identifica- 

 tion will be easier if your specimen includes both heartwood 

 and sapwood. It should be clean and smooth but not 

 sandpapered. With a very sharp knife cut across the 

 grain so that you can examine the end of a piece. A good 

 section, half an inch square, is large enough. Instructive, 

 small, thin sections may be made with a penknife or razor, 

 and when placed on a piece of thin glass, moistened, and 

 covered with another piece of glass, they may be examined by 

 holding them toward the light. 



A lens (magnifying glass), although not essential, is a 

 great help in seeing the pores and pith rays. In using it 

 be careful to avoid shading the specimen you are examining ; 

 unless the light is good, the glass will be of little use. 

 Slightly moistening the surface of the wood may bring out 

 its features more plainly. The illustrations will help you 

 to understand the key. 



The plan of the key. In the key the woods are divided 

 into two groups, ring-porous woods, which are placed 

 under the Roman numeral I, and diffuse-porous woods, 

 which are placed under the Roman numeral II. Then each 

 of these groups is subdivided into smaller groups which are 

 placed under capital letters (A, B, etc.). If necessary, each 

 division under a capital letter is again divided under Arabic 



1 A key for the identification of a larger number of American woods 

 may be obtained by sending to the Superintendent of Public Documents, 

 Washington, D. C., for a Guidebook for the Identification of Woods Used 

 for Ties and Timbers, issued by the United States Forest Service. 



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