April 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



401 



INFLUENCE OF TERMINAL AND AXILLARY BUDS ON THE 

 QUALITY OF TIMBER. 



BY ALFRED GRUCJEON* 



The object of this paper is to show that, whatever influence the different 

 tissues may have on the hardness and strength of various kinds of woods, 

 the more important differences are caused by their arrangement, 

 and that these arrangements are governed by the position and power of 

 the buds on the primary and secondary axis. Let us premise that the 

 most important quality in timber is lateral cohesion, both in hard and 

 soft woods. This point admitted, our task will be to show that terminal 

 and lateral buds determine the amount of lateral cohesion in different 

 classes of wood, and that the length of the internodes between the buds 

 will, in a great measure, account for the differences in woods of the same 

 kind. Many timber-trees present very little uniformity in the nature 

 of their wood, as may be imagined from the difference in their commer- 

 cial value, for the same kind of wood may vary from fourpence to four 

 shillings the superficial foot at the same sale. Such being the variation 

 in wood of one species, we may naturally look for greater differences in 

 wood produced throughout an entire natural order of timber-bearing 

 trees. 



The Coniferse, or Pine tribe, may be divided into two sections — the 

 first containing the Pines, Spruces, and Araucarias, and bearing always 

 terminal and no axillary buds ; the second, containing the Yews, Arbor 

 vitse, and Cypress, bearing axillary and terminal buds. 



These two sections have very opposite qualities of timber, and also 

 present great differences as to the facility with which they can be pro- 

 pagated. 



The Coniferse, especially the Araucarias, have little or no lateral 

 cohesion, in a structural sense, as most of them, when exhausted of sap 

 and their resinous secretions, soon split up into fragments if cut into 

 short lengths ; these can only be raised from seeds, as cuttings will 

 never take root, owing, no doubt, to the absence of lateral buds. Now, 

 if we examine the other section, we shall find a marked difference 

 in the character of the wood. In the yew we have great lateral cohesion, 

 hardness, and closeness of grain, and great durability ; it was at one 

 period, from possessing these qualities, the wood most used for domestic 

 furniture in England. 



In the cypress, again, we have an example of one of the most durable 

 woods in the world, having an amount of cohesion that astonished 

 the French when they bombarded Rome, for some gates and posts made 

 of cypress, whose age numbered certainly a thousand years, after having 

 been well pounded with shot and shell, appeared to be none the worse for 



* Being the abstract of a paper read before the Society of Amateur Botanists, 

 March 1, 1865. 



