46 TIMBEE 



trees, darker near the heart, of uniform texture, compact 

 and firm, though it cannot be considered hard, durable 

 when kept dry, and not liable to warp. It is used for 

 furniture, turning, wooden screws, reels and bobbins, 

 pianos, harps, backs of fiddles and violins, also for coach 

 panels, rollers for wringing and mangling machines, and for 

 the superior sorts of Tunbridge ware and dairy utensils. 

 The annual rings are distinctly marked, and medullary 

 rays fine. The wood is very similar to that of the Norway 

 maple, though rather closer and heavier, and takes a fine 

 polish ; much of it is beautifully figured. 



Weight about 40 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



The Egyptian sycamore is a large tree of the fig tribe. 

 Most of the Egyptian coffins discovered are made of 

 sycamore. 



The Plane, which is such a conspicuous and handsome 

 tree in many London squares and parks and along the 

 Thames Embankment, is a variety of the Eastern plane 

 (Platanus orientalis). It is often confounded with the 

 sycamore, but the plane has very broad medullary rays, thus 

 giving a nice figure to much of the wood (which is yellowish 

 red in colour, somewhat like beech, but softer), whereas the 

 rays of the sycamore are very fine. The timber when 

 polished is not unlike the best walnut. The Eastern plane 

 closely resembles the Western plane, called sycamore in the 

 United States, but the timber, though good, is but little used 

 in Great Britain. The boundary of the rings, which are 

 not clearly defined in the Eastern plane, is a means of dis- 

 tinguishing it from the Western plane, in which they are very 

 distinct. In both species the medullary rays are well defined. 

 Used in the pianoforte trade and by cabinet-makers. 



Weight of Eastern plane about 33 Ibs., Western plane 

 about 40 Ibs., per cubic foot. 



