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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
to which has to be added household furniture and cabinet-ware, 
valued by the importers at £32,557 ; 769 pianofortes, of the 
declared value of £24,542 ; besides other items. This, then, 
forms the aggregate trade in which we are specially interested, 
quite exclusive of the large commercial trade in rough woods 
and furniture carried on by other European nations. 
The foreign fancy and hard woods specifically enumerated in 
the official trade returns are very few, being only mahogany, rose- 
wood, maple, satin, walnut, ebony, and cedar, besides a few 
such as box, barwood and camwood, brazilleto, &c., which are 
chiefly used for other purposes. There are, however, some very 
beautiful woods which, being scarce, are imported in but small 
quantities. 
Oak, ash, elm, beech, birch, &c., are designated hard woods ; 
whilst mahogany, rosewood, zebra, tulip, king-wood, satin, and 
other furniture woods, are usually sold under the denomination 
of fancy woods. From the most common description of pine 
to the finest variety of satin-wood or calamander, from maho- 
gany to walnut, from wainscot to ebony — all are in some way 
or other made to do service in their respective places for the 
cabinet-maker. 
The elements of beauty in wood may be considered as con- 
sisting in lustre, figure, and colour ; in the degree of which there 
are, however, numerous modifications as well as limitations. 
The medullary plates contribute essentially to the character of 
ornamental woods, not only from being the secondary cause of 
the lustre of most of those woods that are remarkable for this 
quality, but likewise by their own inherent properties. In 
nearly all the coloured woods the colour of the medullary plates 
is much deeper than that of the fibres, sometimes varying even 
in kind, so that when viewed in different lights they present 
different colours. The plane or sycamore is remarkable for the 
size and distinctness of its medullary plates, these being of a 
rich chestnut brown, with a considerable lustre, while the fibres 
are nearly white and almost dull. 
There is another source of variety in wood, both in figure 
and colour, depending on the comparison and contrast of one 
annual layer with another. Much irregularity takes place in 
this respect. But this very irregularity is a source of beauty, 
and is capable of being indefinitely varied by making the section 
more or less oblique to the axis of the tree. An alternation of 
colour not unfrequently accompanies these concentric rings, but 
is not indicative of any change of structure ; and when the 
colours are lively, well defined, and well contrasted, their effect 
is very agreeable : king-wood, tulip-wood, Amboyna wood, yew, 
lignum vitae, and partridge-wood, are perhaps some of the 
most remarkable. 
