THE TECHNOLOGIST. [April 1, 1865. 



402 INFLUENCE OP TERMINAL AND 



the treatment. We may mention a few other woods in this section not 

 so generally known, all of which are hard and durable and take a bril- 

 liant polish — viz., Thuja, Dacrydium, Phyllocladus, and perhaps Salis- 

 huria; these can all be propagated either by cuttings, layers, or the leaves. 



Leaving the Coniferse, we will turn to another class of trees, the 

 Willows or Salices. Here we have a totally distinct feature from those 

 already examined : non-continuance of the primary axis, and the buds 

 being all axillar}'. The wood of all the willows is light, but tough, and 

 possesses lateral cohesion in the greatest degree, so that it is exceedingly 

 difficult to cleave. The tenacity with which it holds together is exem- 

 plified by the shavings being woven up into a fabric, which, for enduring 

 many vicissitudes without material injury, stands pre-eminent among 

 woods ; and the manner in which our cricketers wield their bats of 

 willow without damage exemplifies fully its value as a tough, light 

 wood. For facility of propagation it ranks second to none : a fish- 

 basket made of willow twigs, in which you have brought home a cod 

 from Billingsgate, may be thrown on the dust-heap, and nearly every 

 twig become a willow-tree. 



In a more special reference to a few other kinds of timber, what is 

 so fit to take the first place as the oak. In this tree we have both ter- 

 minal and lateral buds, but till the tree arrives at its full growth, the 

 terminal bud always shows more vigour and retains a preponderating 

 influence over the lateral ; and such influence is more marked when they 

 are grown together in forests or plantations. The young timber from 

 our own plantations, and also the white oak imported from Quebec, 

 show lateral cohesion in a very low degree, as can be easily ascertained 

 by examining a lot of Quebec staves at any timber yard, or by a visit 

 to a wheelwright's shop, where you will find the materials for the spokes 

 to be young oak, riven to the thickness necessary ; or an inspection of 

 our park palings, made of oak shingles, riven from young trees. We 

 know that the ease w T ith which these trees are riven is mainly owing to 

 the very thick medullary rays peculiar to the oak ; but they only exer- 

 cise that favourable influence while the terminal bud has the prepon- 

 derating power, and have little or no influence on a matured tree, which 

 has grown singly, and which for a length of years has made as much 

 latitude as longitude, or rather, where the balance of power in the buds 

 has been equalized. If any one doubts the truth of this, let him 

 demonstrate the contrary by taking the section of a trunk about three 

 feet long, from* tree of a hundred years old or upwards, and cleaving 

 it into wheel-spokes, if he can. The same argument applies to beech ; 

 and we must also keep in mind the fact, that there will always be a 

 great amount of difference between trees that have grown naturally and 

 those that have been brought up in a plantation with nuises. There will 

 also be differences, though less perceptible, among those grown naturally, 

 from the vicissitudes they may have undergone individually. Thus, a num- 

 ber of acorns may have been blown from the parent tree and germinated ; 



