165 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



light falls upon them, and consequently is reflected 

 at different angles. 



In the earlier stages of the art of cabinet making, 

 and before the forests of the tropical regions had 

 been explored for those beautiful woods which have 

 since added so much to the elegance of modern fur- 

 niture, the veneering and ornamenting were in woods 

 of native growth. None of these have the deep and 

 w^arm tints of the finest of the foreign ; but the figures 

 W4th which they are marked are often very beautiful. 

 The yew, which, with its other tints, blends a certain 

 trace of pink or rose-colour, and when it is gnarled 

 or knotty, has a very rich ajipearance, was the wood 

 used for the finest and most costly works. The 

 common veneering timber was walnut ; but as that 

 has but few of those variegations, which are tech- 

 nically termed curls, the works ornamented with 

 it were rather deficient in beauty. The knotty parts 

 of " pollard" oaks, and " pollard*' elms, are much 

 better adapted for the purpose of ornament ; but as 

 the grain of both is open, and as it is apt to rise, and 

 as the earlier cabinet-makers were not so well ac- 

 quainted with the art of varnishing, as those of mo- 

 dern times, the beauties of these woods were not 

 turned to the proper account. 



When mahogany was first introduced as a cabinet 

 timber, it seems to have been in the dark-coloured, 

 hard, and straight-grained trees, which are now 

 vised for chairs, and other articles, in which the solid 

 timber is preferred ; and on that account mahogany 

 was not much used in combination with other woods. 

 When, however, its great value was known — the ease 

 with which it can be cut, the improvement that var- 

 nish gives to its colours, the firmness with which it 

 holds in glue, and the improvement which, when 

 properly taken care of, it gains in time — it was foimd 

 that good mahogany was much too valuable a timber 



