256 CERASUS SYLVESTRIS. 
pounds, and in seasoning, it loses about one-sixteenth part of its bulk. In France, 
where mahogany is comparatively scarce, it is much sought after by cabinet- 
makers, turners, and the manufacturers of musical instruments. In order to 
heighten its colour and increase the depth of its tone, it is steeped from twenty- 
four to thirty-six hours in lime-water, and after being taken out, is immedi- 
ately polished. This process, they say, prevents the colour from fading, when 
exposed to the action of the light ; and the wood, when thus treated, is said 
strongly to resemble the more inferior kinds of mahogany. Its value, however, 
according to the experience of Mr. Selby, is not restricted to the uses made of it 
by those artisans, but it is equally applicable to the general purposes of carpen- 
try ; and where exposure to the atmosphere or the alternation of moisture and 
dryness is required, it is superior to most other timber, and is scarcely inferior to 
the best oak, or its rival, the larch.* In France, wine-casks are made of this 
wood, and the wine kept in them is said to be of an improved flavour. Where 
the tree is treated as a coppice, its shoots, from their power of resisting decay, 
make excellent hop-poles, vine-props, and hoops for casks, and when sufficiently 
large, they may be employed for posts and rails, for constructing rural fences. 
Like many other trees, it burns well when first cut, but if it be kept for two or 
three years, and is then employed for fuel, it will consume away like tinder, 
without producing either flame or heat. 
As a tree, the gean is not only valuable for its timber, but for the food and 
protection which it affords to numerous species of birds. This is one reason why 
the cultivation of this tree is so generally encouraged in the forests of Britain, 
Belgium, and France ; as it not only increases the number of birds by supplying 
them with nourishment, but is the means of destroying countless insects, which 
these important and useful creatures devour. In all ornamental plantations, 
hedge-rows, and avenues, cherry-trees are desirable objects of culture, on this 
account, as well as for the great beauty of their flowers and fruit, which are 
produced in the greatest profusion in their respective seasons of the year. 
In France, too, this tree is highly prized for the food it supplies to the poor ; 
and a law was passed, as long ago as 1669, commanding the preservation of all 
cherry-trees in the royal forests, in consequence- of which, they became so numer- 
ous, that there was no longer room for the underwood to grow ; when, as usual, 
going to the other extreme, most of them were cut down. This measure, it was 
remarked, was a great calamity to the poor, who, during several months of the 
year, lived, either directly or indirectly, on the produce of the merisier. Soup, 
made of the dried fruit, with a little bread and butter, was the common nour- 
ishment of the wood-cutters and charcoal-burners of the forest, during the 
winter. This fruit is much used at present, to make jelly or rob, and in the 
manufacture of liqueurs, such as cherry brandy, ratafia> &c. Kirschwasser, an 
ardent spirit much used in Germany and Switzerland, is also made of it ; and 
the famous liqueur Maraschino is the product of a small acid cherry that abounds 
in the north of Italy, at Trieste, and in Dalmatia. 
* See Selby's British Forest Trees, p. 60. 
