1960 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



barking the tree while standing. Mathews, who always writes from experience, 

 says that the timber of the beech " soon corrupts, if it be not speedily dried, 

 or kept in water after being cut down;" and that it is equally liable to cor- 

 ruption in the tree, when deprived of life by wounds or other injury. The 

 beech has, he says, " a matured and a sap wood, although they are not very 

 distinguishable, being nearly of one colour. The former has considerable 

 durability when kept dry ; but the latter is speedily consumed by worms." 

 (On Naval Timber, etc., p. 49.) Mathews recommends the beech with yellow- 

 coloured wood, found on good soil, as superior in durability to that with white 

 wood, which is only to be found on light soils. The grain of the wood is not 

 sufficiently homogeneous to receive a very high polish. The uses of the wood 

 of the beech, notwithstanding all its faults, arc more extensive than those of 

 almost any other tree. The keels of vessels are often made of it ; and Mathews, 

 as we have seen (p. 1953.), says that a tree, when properly trained, affords, 

 probably, the most profitable hard wood that we can raise for planking the 

 sides and bottoms of vessels. Beech wood is employed in making pile.s, 

 ringing mill-wheels (in which situation, according to South, it has stood un- 

 injured for more than 40 years), for weirs, sluices, flood-gates, and, in general, 

 for all works which are to be constantly under water. Before cast-iron wheels 

 ;ind pinions became general, beech was much used for making the cogs of 

 wooden wheels. In England, at the present time, the beech is principally 

 employed in making bedsteads and chairs; and it is also in great demand for 

 panels for carriages, and for various purposes in joinery, cabinet-making, and 

 turnery. Screws, wooden shovels, peels for bakers' ovens, and rims for 

 sieves, are also made of it. In Scotland, the branches and spray are distilled 

 for producing the pyroligneous acid ; and the wood is used there not only for 

 the^same purposes as in England, but also for making herring barrels ; and 

 the wood, the branches, the chips, and the spray are much used for smoking 

 herrings, in the Highlands, along the sea coast. The bedsteads, and other 

 articles of furniture, made of the beech, are stained in imitation of mahogany ; 

 and the chairs are either stained or painted. For various minor uses, such 

 as handles to jugs, teapots, &c., it is stained in imitation of ebony; and, ac- 

 cording to Evelyn, it is blacked and polished with a mixture of soot and urine, 

 to imitate the walnut : but the colour thus produced does not last. In 

 France, it is used as a substitute for walnut as gun stocks. In Germany, 

 the carriages of cannon are frequently made of it, particularly at sea ports ; 

 it being found to last longer where the atmosphere is humid and saline, than 

 the wood of the elm. It is also used there, and in many other parts of the 

 Continent, for the felloes of wheels, and for bowls, porringers, salt-boxes, 

 screws, spindles, rollers, spinning-wheels, pestles, presses, and bellows. It is 

 in very common use for tables, and for the framework and boards of beds ; 

 for wardrobes, chests of drawers, desks, hames for horses' collars, frames for 

 saddles, hoops for sieves and riddles, bushel and other measures, eases for 

 drums, and for a great variety of other purposes. Sawn into thin boards, it 

 forms a great variety of boxes and packing-cases, also scabbards for swords, 

 and cases of various kinds. It is used by the German bookbinders, instead of 

 pasteboard, for forming the sides to thick volumes, which were originally 

 called books, from the German name of this wood, buch. According to 

 Bory St. Vincent, it is the best of all wood for forming the upper board of 

 that kind of press (for pressing and drying plants) which, in France, is called 

 a coquette. (See Diet. Class, d'Hist. Nat., art. Hetre; and Annalcs d(s Sr'n-ii. 

 Nal., t. iv. p. 504.) It is used for making cricket-bats both in France and 

 Germany, as the willow is in England ; and in both countries, also, the socks 

 of the old heavy wooden ploughs are made of it. Baudrillart informs us that, 

 in some parts of France, little boats are hollowed out of the trunks of large 

 beech trees, for using in small rivers, and in fishing-ponds ; and he adds that 

 it is preferred to all other woods for the oars of galleys. But the most im- 

 portant manufacture of beech wood on the Continent, and especially in France, 

 is that of the wooden shoes called sabots. These sabots are rather more 



