52 TIMBER 



attains a greater height than 12 to 14 ft., but in warmer 

 climates is found of twice this size. The wood is heavier 

 than any European wood, and some of it will sink in water ; 

 the colour is a beautiful yellow or orange ; it is hard, close 

 and silky in grain, easily worked, and takes a fine polish. 

 It is much used by the turner and wood carver referred 

 to by Virgil as " proper for the turner's trade " and in 

 the manufacture of rules and drawing scales, also for 

 planes, handles of turnscrews and other tools, and is pre- 

 ferred to any other wood for flutes and other wind instru- 

 ments. It was the chief wood used for wood engraving 

 when that process was much more common than it is 

 to-day, admitting as it does of a finish as fine almost as that 

 of metal. It is about the most solid at the pith of any wood 

 to be met with the pith of all true boxwoods is lozenge 

 shaped in section ; the wood is cold and smooth to the 

 touch, the bark and sap together are only about the thick- 

 ness of stout cardboard. The box of commerce now 

 comes chiefly from the Caucasus and parts of Turkey in 

 Asia, but the supply is scarce and dear, and a good deal 

 of persimmon and other timber is used in place of box. 

 The true box can only be had in short lengths up to 6 ft., 

 and from 2| to 12 inches in diameter ; it is usually sold by 

 weight. 



Weight up to 72 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Ash is a wood of which there are about fifty species, 

 natives of Europe and North America as well as Asia and 

 Japan. 



The Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is a beautiful and 

 umbrageous tree, but extremely injurious to grass and 

 crops immediately under and around it. The wood is 

 greyish or brownish white with longitudinal yellow streaks, 



