110 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY 
and other workers in wood. Some woods not among the most 
important kinds for general purposes are particularly well 
suited to special uses. Hickory is valuable for ax handles 
and for wagon and carriage spokes; beech, for shoemakers’ 
lasts, saw handles, and carpenters’ planes; black locust and 
chestnut, for posts and railroad ties, because they decay 
very slowly even when 
underground. 
Our best native woods 
for cabinetwork are black 
walnut, maple, cherry, birch, 
and some kinds of oak and 
ash. Red oak is not so 
strong as white oak, but it 
has a much coarser grain, 
so that quartered red oak 
(cut radially from the log) 
is among the most orna- 
mental of moderate-priced 
woods for cabinetmaking 
and for paneling in the 
Fie. 92. Cross section of ring-porous Imterior finish of houses. 
wood of sassafras Sycamore and sweet gum 
a.r, boundaries of the annual rings; the are also very effective for 
g ay 
wood is ring-porous because the ducts (here; : 
shown as oval or roundish spots) are most interior finish, the former 
abundant in the spring wood but almost bemg especially important ; 
leckng In axioms Mond. Magnitel 3A the supply is very large 
and extremely wide boards 
can be cut from its immense trunks. Large portions of the 
trunks of old black-walnut trees are often very beautiful in 
their structure and are extremely valuable, as are also the 
trunks of bird’s-eye maple. 
What hard woods used as fuel do you know by sight ? 
What kinds used for construction or other mechanical pur- 
poses do you know? What kinds are most readily distin- 
guished from all others? Why ? 
