286 



WOODS OF COMMERCE. 



tracheids above and below, with very unevenly thickened walls 

 and small bordered pits. As the branches are in whorls, the 

 knots serve to distinguish Pine from Larch, in which they are 

 scattered (Fig. 58). In northern Europe the Pine is the chief 

 timber used in house-building, both for framework of hewn logs, 

 walls of logs in the round, and clap-boards : in Kussia pine-logs 

 are used for corduroy -roads and the use of the wood for fuel is 



FIG. 58. Radial section of Northern Pine (Pinus sylvestriz). 



universal. Baltic Pine was imported to and used in our east 

 coast towns for flooring, wainscotting and joinery in the 15th, 

 16th and 17th centuries, when Oak was the chief building timber 

 employed in England. Not till the beginning of the 18th was it 

 recognized that the Scots Fir was the same species : the high 

 price of foreign timber during the Napoleonic wars led to the 

 clearing of the indigenous pine-forests of northern Scotland ; and 

 the excellence, easy working and great durability of the timber 

 obtained from them broke down the prejudice in favour of Oak, 



