46 
TIMBER 
trees, darker near the heart, of uniform texture, compact 
and firm, though it cannot be considered hard, durable 
when kept dry, and not Hable to warp. It is used for 
furniture, turning, wooden screws, reels and bobbins, 
pianos, harps, backs of fiddles and violins, also for coach 
panels, rollers for wringing and mangling machines, and for 
the superior sorts of Tunbridge ware and dairy utensils. 
The annual rings are distinctly marked, and medullary 
rays fine. The wood is very similar to that of the Norway 
maple, though rather closer and heavier, and takes a fine 
polish ; much of it is beautifully figured. 
Weight about 40 lbs, per cubic foot. 
The Egyptian sycamore is a large tree of the fig tribe. 
Most of the Egyptian coffins discovered are made of 
sycamore. 
The Plane, which is such a conspicuous and handsome 
tree in many London squares and parks and along the 
Thames Embankment, is a variety of the Eastern plane 
{PlatdniLs orieiitalis). It is often confounded with the 
sycamore, but the plane has very broad medullary rays, thus 
giving a nice figure to much of the wood (which is yellowish 
red in colour, somewhat like beech, but softer), whereas the 
rays of the sycamore are very fine. The timber when 
polished is not unlike the best walnut. The Eastern plane 
closely resembles the "Western plane, called sycamore in the 
United States, but the timber, though good, is but little used 
in Great Britain. The boundary of the rings, which are 
not clearly defined in the Eastern plane, is a means of dis- 
tinguishing it from the Western plane, in which they are very 
distinct. In both species the medullary rays are well defined. 
Used in the pianoforte trade and by cabinet-makers. 
Weight of Eastern plane about 33 lbs., Western plane 
about 40 lbs., per cubic foot. 
