SCENTED WOODS 



BY SAMUEL J. RECORD 



PROFESSOR OF FOREST PRODUCTS, YALE UNIVERSITY 



WITH the woods of the world to choose from one 

 can easily arrange a whole scale of scents from 

 the sweetest and most delicate of perfumes, at 

 one extreme to rank and overpowering odors at the 

 other. The stores of the perfumer's shop will not yield 

 a greater varie- 

 ty than one can 

 find in woods. 

 There' too are 

 to be found 

 distinct impres- 

 sions of flavor- 

 i n g essences, 

 spices and con- 

 d i men t s, of 

 crushed fruits, 

 of various 

 kinds of vege- 

 tables and of 

 nuts, and a 

 host of other 

 things often too 

 vague for ex- 

 pression.. 



Were our 

 sense of smell 

 more highly 

 developed and 

 better trained 

 we should find 

 that every wood 

 has its own pe- 

 culiar scent by 

 which alone it 

 could be distin- 

 guished from 

 all the rest. 

 How often do 

 we say that a 

 wood is odor- 

 less when we 

 mean that the 

 impression 

 get is too 



A MAGNIFICENT INCENSE CEDAR, NEAR PASADENA IN CALIFORNIA. THE WOOD OF THIS 

 TREE IS VALUED BOTH BECAUSE OF ITS FRAGRANCE AND EXCELLENT WORKING QUALITIES 



we 



subtile or vague for definite perception. 

 Both odor and taste are purely subjective. Our per- 

 ceptions of them do not admit of expression and com- 

 parison by means of figures as in the case of other 

 observations. Moreover, smell and taste are quite differ- 

 ently developed faculties in each individual. The im- 

 pressions we get depend not only on our keenness of 

 scent but also upon a whole train of past experiences 

 and previous impressions. What does "sweet as the 

 breath of kine" mean to the average city dweller? 



No one fully appreciates the inadequacy of language 

 written or spoken until he has attempted to express in 

 words some unusual odor or taste perceptions. It is 

 then he. realizes that they are of the fourth dimensional 

 stuff of which dreams are made. Often the best one 



can do is to in- 

 dicate whether 

 the sensation is 

 pleasant or dis- 

 agreeable, mild 

 or pronounced, 

 and sum up the 

 rest by saying 

 it is peculiar. 



Many defini- 

 tions of an 

 odor violate the 

 first law of 

 definitions by 

 describing it in 

 terms of itself 

 or of some de- 

 rived product. 

 We say that 

 red cedar 

 smells like a 

 lead pencil or 

 a clothes chest, 

 Spanish cedar 

 like a cigar box, 

 western cedar 

 like a shingle, 

 and that white 

 birch tastes like 

 a spool! Eng- 

 lish writers 

 have a . habit 

 of saying pine 

 smells like deal, 

 in other words 

 that pine smells 

 like a pine 

 plank ! Such 

 of conveying a 

 in terms of 

 They 



comparisons, however, have the merit 

 pretty definite meaning because they are 

 things with which we are all more or less familiar 

 will have to stand until someone invents an odor scale! 

 Names of woods are often derived from their odor: 

 Anything that has a frangrance akin to that of our com- 

 mon cedar is forthwith a cedar without any regard to 

 the botanical relationship. In the real cedar family we 

 have not only a great many different species but also 

 various genera of trees scattered all over the world. 



