THE EUROPEAN VARIETIES OF HARDWOOD 75 
of the furniture at the end of the seventeenth and 
commencement of the eighteenth century, before the 
mahogany period set in, being made of this wood. 
There is an active demand in present times for the 
timber, and it realises good prices, but it is scarce, and 
little beyond isolated specimens come into the market. 
French Walnut.—This wood is of similar character 
to the English, but, while generally well-coloured, has not 
perhaps so much stripy figure as the English-grown, 
at any rate that is the case in the wood exported, which 
consists of planks mostly cut from the upper part 
of the trunk. 
Italian.—This perhaps shares, with the wood obtained 
from Circassia, the highest appreciation of consumers. 
A fashion prevailed about thirty-five years ago for this 
wood, great quantities being in demand for chair-frames 
and other work in the cabinet trades, and to fill this 
demand large exports of planks from Genoa and other 
Italian ports were received. They were mostly of 
narrow widths and contained'much sap, but found a 
ready market, the wood being sold by weight. The 
fashion abated after some years, and the use of the wood 
was supplanted by American walnut and other woods. 
Occasionally, parcels of better-class planks have since 
arrived at intervals, such timber ‘selling readily, when 
of prime quality, at good prices. The wood is of fine 
character, and when of stripy description makes a hand- 
some material for high-class furniture ; it has, however, 
some liability to the attack of small worms, under 
which the wood slowly crumbles away. 
Circassian.—-Another fine wood is shipped from 
Batoum and other ports in the Black Sea, the wood 
being frequently known as Black Sea Walnut. It is 
extracted from the hillsides of the Circassian Moun- 
tains, and is shipped in hewn logs some 6 ft. to 10 ft. long, 
