THE TIMBERS OF COMMERCE 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but the rays are minute, 

 brown spindle-shaped lines, apparently about i - o mm. high. 



Type specimens authenticated by the Forest Officer to the 

 Government of Natal, and also from a log sent me by the 

 Imperial Institute. 



No. 37. HOLLY. Ilex aquifolium. Linn. 



Plate III. Fig. 27. 



Natural Order. Ilicinese. 



Distribution. Europe from South Norway to Turkey and the 

 Caucasus ; Western Asia. 



Alternative Names. Gemeine Huelsen : Huelsdorn : Christus- 

 dorn : Stechpalme (131). 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 48-60 lb. per 

 cu. ft. Hardness Grade 5, rather hard, compare Ash or Com- 

 mon Elm. Smell and taste none. Burns well and quietly, 

 ignites readily, embers glow in still air. Solution with water 

 and alcohol colourless. 



Grain. Extremely fine, close and dense. Surface bright, 

 the little lustre being due to the minute shining pores. 



Bark. Thin, about -fa inch, greenish-brown, wrinkled, 

 smooth, not fissured : dull, but with the remains of the closely- 

 adherent, shining epidermis. 



Uses, etc. Turnery, cogs, marquetry. Takes a black stain 

 well and then appears like ebony (69). A good 'turner's wood. 



Authorities. Nordlinger (87), p. 522. Ditto (86), vol. iii. 

 p. 69. Mathieu (69), p. 58. Wiesner (131), L. xii. p. 966. 



Colour. White or greenish-white. A sap-wood tree, no 

 heart. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : — 



Pores. Need lens, extremely fine, size 7, much variation : 

 united in nests or lines, usually 5-12, arranged radially and 

 branched : numerous, 40-150 per sq. mm., locally abundant : 

 a pore-ring of a few rows of not coarser pores. 



Rays. Just visible, rather broad, size 3 : straight, not 

 avoiding the pores : long, tapering gently at both ends : denser 

 than the ground- tissue ; numerous, 3-5 per mm.: irregularly 

 spaced, a pore-width or more apart : white. According to 

 Mathieu there are two kinds of rays, but I believe that those 

 which he took to be the smaller are merely the attenuated 

 ends of the larger (see also Wiesner). 



Rings. Clear, though not prominent : boundary a very fine 

 line of dense Autumn wood, followed by a few-rowed pore-ring : 

 contour well rounded. 



44 



