FENCING AND CAEPENTERS' WOODS 83 



Spruce {Tsuga caimMnsis), White and Black Spruces {Picea alba 

 and P. nigra) ; and in the West Indies, Fiddlewood (various species 

 of Githarixylum) may be specially mentioned as carpenters' woods. 

 In South Africa the Cedar Boom {Widdringtonia juniferoides), 

 though not very durable, is a useful wood, as the allied species, 

 W. WMtei, from the kloofs of the Shire Highlands, may probably 

 prove ; and in Eastern Australia the Moreton Bay Pine {Arau-- 

 cdria GunningMmi) may be mentioned in this group. The carpenter 

 requires cheap wood, easily worked, and of moderate strength. 



Carriage-building. — ^We may class here the various woods em- 

 ployed in the many branches of the wheelwright's, waggon and 

 carriage-builder's trade. Hornbeam {Carpinus Bitulus), Elm, and 

 Austrahan Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) are peculiarly fitted 

 for the hubs ; Oak, Robinia, Ash and Eucalyptus crebra and E. 

 goniocdlyx for spokes ; Hickory (various species of Hicoria) for 

 axle-trees and shafts ; Poplar, American White- wood [Liriodindron 

 tuUpifera), Birch and Maple [Acer barbdtum) for panels ; the dense 

 Pyengadu (Xylia dolabriformis) and Padouk [Pterocdrpvs indicus) of 

 Burma, for gun-carriages or the frames of railway- waggons, and the 

 Bastard Peppermint of New South Wales {Tristdnia suaveohns) for 

 somewhat similar purposes, in which tough hard wood is needed. 

 About 1750, Satinwood, upon which Cipriani and Angelica Kauff- 

 mann executed their paintings, became fashionable for coach- 

 panels ; whilst for the humbler purposes of wheelbarrows Willow 

 is useful from its freedom from splintering. 



Furniture. — ^An immense variety of woods have been employed 

 in the making of furniture, susceptibility to polish, beauty of 

 colour or grain, and durability being their chief requisites, together 

 with freedom from shrinkage, whilst they are variously employed 

 either planed, carved, turned, or bent. Thus some wood known 

 as " Cedar " seems to have been largely used in ancient Assyria 

 and Egypt, forming the beams of the temple of Apollo at Utica, 

 said by Pliny to have been sound 1,200 years after their erection ; 

 employed alike in Solomon's temple, in Greek sculpture, and in 

 •carpentry, as for the chest in which Cj^selus of Corinth is said to 

 have been concealed about 550 B.C. As Vitruvius speaks of that 

 of Crete, Africa, and Syria as the best, it is probable that then, as 

 now, the wood of several species was confused under one name, 

 probably the Lebanon Cedar {Oedrus Ubani), that of Mount Atlas 

 (G, atldntica) and the 'Arar {TetracUnis articuldta) of Morocco. 

 This last sweet-scented wood, known also as Atlas Cj^ress, was 

 the much- vaunted " Citrus " or " Citron " Wood of the Homans 

 and probably the '* Thyine Wood " of the Apocalypse. The roof of 

 the cathedral at Cordova, originally a mosque, is built of it, it being 



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