Chap. 83.] 
WOODS UNITED WITH GLUE. 
427 
CHAP. 82. CAKPEJl^TEKS' WOODS. 
The wood of the fir is strongest in a vertical position : it 
is remarkably well adapted for the pannels of doors, and all 
kinds of in-door joiners' work, whether in the Grecian, the 
Campanian, or the Sicilian style. The shavings of this wood 
when brisklj^ planed, always curl up in circles like the tendrils 
of the vine. This wood, too, unites particularly well with 
glue : it is used in this state for making vehicles, and is found 
to split sooner in the solid parts than in a place where the 
pieces have been glued together. 
CHAP. 83. (43.) WOODS UNITED WITH GLUE. 
Glue, too, plays one of the principal parts in all veneering 
and works of marqueterie. For this purpose, the workmen 
usually employ wood with a threaded vein, to which they give 
the name of ferulea," from its resemblance to the grain of 
the giant fennel,^''' this part of the wood being preferred from 
its being dotted and wavy. In every variety there are some 
woods to be found that will not take the glue, and which re- 
fuse to unite either with wood of the same kind or of any 
other; the wood of the robur for example. Indeed, it is 
mostly the case that substances will not unite unless they are 
of a similar nature ; a stone, for instance, cannot be made to 
adhere to wood. The wood of the service-tree, the yoke- elm, 
the box, and, in a less degree, the lime, have a particular 
aversion to uniting with the cornel. All the yielding woods 
which we have already spoken^® of as flexible readily adapt 
themselves to every kind of work ; and in addition to them, 
the mulberry and the wild fig. Those which are moderately 
moist are easily sawn and cut, but dry woods are apt to give 
w^ay beyond the part that is touched by the saw ; while, on 
the other hand, the green woods, with the exception of the 
robur and the box, offer a more obstinate resistance, filling the 
intervals between the teeth of the saw with sawdust, and 
rendering its edge uniform and inert ; it is for this reason 
that the teeth are often made to project right and left in turns, 
The resistance that woods offer when placed vertically is in the same 
ratio as that presented by them when employed horizontally. This para- 
graph is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 4, and B. v. cc. 6, 7, 8. 
^7 Ferula. 48 c. 77. 
