52 TIMBER AND SOME OF ITS DISEASES, [chap. 



clues, as well as the arrangement and relative size 

 of the pores and medullary rays, and the presence or 

 absence of annual rings ; so that it is really only 

 experience and habit that can teach us to recognize, 

 from a mere inspection of a wood, the place which it 

 ought to occupy in the natural system." But while 

 we may readily admit the general truth of this re- 

 mark, it seems a just rejoinder that in so far as the 

 characters of wood are capable of accurate descrip- 

 tion, it will become more and more possible to 

 explain why the expert can recognise a piece of 

 timber. Definiteness and system are the two things 

 to aim at. 



In order to illustrate the sort of lines along which 

 a systematic tabulation of the characters of timber 

 might be looked for, I subjoin a scheme of classifica- 

 tion of some of the most important European and 

 Indian timbers, and I may perhaps add my conviction 

 that if observers will only continue to note peculiari- 

 ties, and compare them in some such manner as this, 

 it should be possible to obtain a much more complete 

 classification than we could bring together now. 



For the foresters' purposes in any country, many 

 extremely valuable characters are to be obtained 

 incidentally, as it were, to those of the timber proper, 

 from observing the size of the tree, or shrub, or if 



