WOOD IN GENERAL 



241 



duced to strips or shreds, or else chemically treated so as to 

 separate the ultimate fibrils for paper pulp. Osiers from 

 various species of willow (Fig. 228) afford woody fibers of 

 the first kind which are extensively used for wickerwork. 

 Thin flat strips of willow, poplar (Fig. 253), and other soft 

 woods form the chip of which chip hats are braided. Similar 

 strips of ash (Fig. 245), hickory (Fig. 30), and other hard 

 woods which split easily and evenly make the splint which is 

 woven into large market baskets, chair bottoms and backs, 



2) 



Fig. 226. — Amadou (Fomcs fomentarius, Pore-mushroona Family, Poly- 

 poracccr). C, fruit-body growing out like a bracket from the side of a 

 tree, 3. D, The same cut vertically, to show the numerous fine tubes 

 extending downward vertically from which the dust-like spores fall. 3. 

 (Hennings.) — Brownish or grayish above, rich brown within. Native 

 home, Eurasia, North America, parasitic on beech, etc. 



and the like. White pine and spruce, shredded by machinery, 

 yield the familiar packing material known as excelsior. Spruce 

 and poplar are the chief woods used for the wood pulp from 

 which the cheaper grades of paper are made, or as an in- 

 gredient in book papers of higher quality. Thus the paper 

 of this book is made of cotton rags mixed with poplar pulp. 

 72. Wood in general. In economic importance woods 

 rank next to vegetable fibers. Just as the great use of fibers 

 is for clothing, which is almo.st as necessary to us as food, 

 so the great use of wood is for buildings, which are scarcely 



