CHAP. CV. CORYLA V CE,E. C'A'RPlNUS. 2009 



Fawkee, also, mentions them in his Bramham Park : 



" Here hornbeam hedges regularly grow, 

 There hawthorn whitens, and wild roses blow." 



Properties and Uses. The wood of the hornbeam is white, hard, heavy, 

 tenacious, and very close-grained ; but it will not take a good polish. Ac- 

 cording to Varennes de Fenille, it shrinks a great deal in drying, and loses 

 considerably in its weight. Some German authors, however, deny that it 

 loses either more bulk or more weight in drying than the oak. According to 

 the table given in the Dictionnaire des Eaux et Forets, it weighs, when green, 

 64 Ib. ; half-dry, 57 Ib. ; and quite dry, 51 Ib. It is very seldom used in con- 

 struction ; partly because it is seldom found of proper dimensions, and partly 

 because, when the tree attains a large size, the wood is apt to become shaky, 

 like that of the chestnut. On this subject, Varennes de Fenille observes : 

 " The trunk is rarely well shaped, being scarcely ever round ; the arrangement 

 of the fibres is singular, the annual layers never showing a regular circular 

 line, like the layers of other trees, but being undulated and zigzag; and the 

 transverse fibres, or medullary rays, stronger and wider apart than in most 

 other trees. It is consequently very difficult to work : it is what the 

 workmen call cross-grained, and is apt to rise in splinters under the work- 

 man's tool, peeling off in flakes, and rendering it very difficult to obtain a 

 smooth section." These objections do not apply to the hornbeam in its 

 young state. Its toughness and hardness (though the latter quality makes 

 it difficult to work) render it excellent for all sorts of wheelwright's work, 

 and other kinds of rural carpentry ; particularly for the yokes of cattle, to 

 which use the wood was applied (as we have already seen) by the Romans, 

 and, since their time, in almost every country of which the tree is a native. 

 It is particularly well adapted for mill-cogs, for which, according to Evelyn, 

 "it excels either yew or crab." It is exceedingly strong ; a piece 2 in. 

 square, and 7 ft. 8 in. long, having supported 228 Ib. ; while a similar beam of 

 ash broke under 200 Ib. ; one of birch, under 190 Ib. ; of oak, 185 Ib. ; of beech, 

 165 Ib. ; and of all other woods, very much less. Notwithstanding its powers 

 of resistance, the hornbeam has very little flexibility ; it having bent, before it 

 broke, only 10; while the ash bent 21, the birch 19, the oak 12, &c. 

 Linnaeus observes that the wood is very white and tough, harder than haw- 

 thorn, and capable of supporting great weights. 



As Fuel, the wood of the hornbeam should be placed in the highest rank. 

 In France, it is preferred to every other for apartments, as it lights easily, and 

 makes a bright flame, which burns equally, continues a long time, and gives 

 out abundance of heat ; but, though its value in this respect surpasses that of 

 the beech in the proportion of 1655 to 1540, yet the shape of the logs of 

 hornbeam is so irregular, that a cord of it, measured as they measure willows 

 (see p. 1470.), is not worth more, in Paris, in proportion to a cord of beech, 

 than I486 to 1540. In England, the hornbeam is considered to make lasting 

 firewood ; and, according to Boutcher, it burns as clear as a candle. (Treat., 

 &c., p. 58.), Evelyn, also, says " it makes good firewood, where it burns like 

 a candle ; and was of old so employed : * Carpinus taedas fissa facesque dabit.' " 

 And Miller speaks of it as excellent fuel. Its charcoal is highly esteemed, 

 and, in France and Switzerland, it is preferred to most others, not only for 

 forges and for cooking by, but for making gunpowder ; the workmen at the 

 great gunpowder manufactory at Berne rarely using any other. The inner 

 bark, according to Linnaeus, is used for dyeing yellow. The leaves, when 

 dried in the sun, are used in France as fodder ; and, when wanted for use in 

 winter, the young branches are cut off in the middle of summer, between the 

 first and second growth, and strewed or spread out in some place which is 

 completely sheltered from the rain, to dry, without the tree being in the 

 slightest degree injured by the operation. (Sec Diet, des Eaux et Forets, art. 

 Charme.) 



For a Nurse Plant, and for Hedges, the hornbeam is particularly well 

 adapted. The real " excellency of the hornbeam," says Marshall, " lies in its 



