TIMBER AND OTHER WOODS. 177 



Our knowledge of the botanical sources of the 

 bamboos, canes, and sticks used at the present day 

 for walking-sticks, umbrella-handles, etc., is most 

 imperfect. Such as it is, it has been ably sum- 

 marized by Mr. J. R. Jackson.* Only twenty years 

 ago our imports, to supplement home-grown oak, ash, 

 blackthorn and holly, consisted almost exclusively of 

 bamboos and of Partridge and Tonquin canes. We 

 now import more than fifty different species, from 

 Singapore, China, the West Indies, Algeria, and the 

 Continent of Europe, twenty-nine million sticks coming 

 annually from the East, three million from Europe, 

 and two million from Algiers, the total import being 

 valued at .300,000. Among exceptional structures 

 used for these purposes are the JERSEY CABBAGE, a 

 tall variety of Brassica oleracea, L., produced by 

 stripping off the lower leaves, light but weak; the 

 so-called 'THISTLE,' the stems of the MULLEIN 

 (Verbascum T/iapsus, L.), a British plant ; the TEAZLE, 

 the fasciated and consequently twisted stalks of the 

 FULLER'S TEAZLE (Dipsacus fullonum, Mill.), im- 

 ported in large numbers from the South of France, 

 but having no strength ; and the triangular midribs 

 of the leaves of the DATE-PALM (Phoenix dactylifera, 

 L.), imported from Algiers. Those most commonly 

 cut out of the solid log are OAK (Quercus Robur, L.) 

 home-grown; CEYLON or MACASSAR EBONY (Dios- 

 pyros Ebenum, Kcenig) ; and the PALMYRA PALM 

 (Borassus flabelliformis, L.), of India. Those most 

 commonly grown in England are ASP, or APSE 

 (Populus tremula, L.), valued for ligthness; Asil 



* 'Journ. Soc. Arts,' 1888. 



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