EUROPEAN TIMBER 45 



Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is a British tree which grows 

 to a height of 30 to 50 ft. and produces a hard, tough, 

 strong, white coloured, close cross-grained, inelastic, heavy 

 wood, containing little or no sap ; it stands exposure well 

 unless cut from old trees. Under vertical pressure the 

 fibres often double up instead of snapping. Makes good 

 mallets and lasts, and is also used for agricultural imple- 

 ments and turning; takes a fine polish, tools employed upon 

 it soon lose their edge ; is difficult to split and make smooth 

 under the plane ; it also shrinks a good deal. In Gerald's 

 " Herball," 1633, he says that this wood " waxeth so hard 

 that the toughness and hardness of it may be rather com- 

 pared to horn than unto wood and therefore it is called 

 hornbeam or hardbeam." It was formerly in Britain and 

 is still in some parts of Europe preferred for making yokes 

 for cattle ; hence, according to some authorities, the name. 

 A considerable quantity of the hornbeam used in Britain is 

 imported from France in planks 6 to 19 ft. long, 6 to 12 

 inches wide, and 3 to 6 inches thick. It grows fairly 

 plentifully in America, but the wood is not exported. The 

 amount of water absorbed into cubes of hornbeam, which 

 attained its maximum at end of the sixth day, ranged from 45 

 to 79 per cent, of its dry weight, and the weight needed to 

 crush 2-inch cubes of dry wood was from 19,621 to 25,794 Ibs. 

 Annual rings fairly close, medullary rays distinct and 

 numerous. 



Weight about 47 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Sycamore or Great Maple (Acer pseudo-platanus) , often 

 called the plane tree in Scotland, is neither a plane nor a 

 true sycamore ; it is common in Britain and Germany, 

 although practically the whole of the sycamore of commerce 

 comes from America. The tree attains a height of 60 ft., 

 and produces an almost white wood, slightly yellow in older 



