■348 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
By the use of beautifully adapted circular saws, worked by 
machinery, veneers are often cut of the thickness of one-fortieth 
of an inch, a little thicker than the sheet of paper on which this is 
printed. By the largest saws, logs of mahogany, three feet 
square, can be cut up into unbroken sheets of veneer at the 
rate of about ten or twelve to the inch, and so beautifully 
smooth as to require scarcely any dressing. The longitudinal 
edges of the veneers are protected by a calico band glued on, 
to prevent them from splitting when removed. Walnut is cut, 
not in longitudinal sections like other veneers, but in thin spiral 
sheets from the circumference of the tree. That makes the 
thinnest veneer of the whole, but it is frequently defective. 
Bosewood, obtained from Brazil, and walnut, from Belgium 
and Italy, are probably, next to mahogany, the most important 
furniture woods. 
There is still great confusion as to the trees which furnish the 
South American rosewood. From the Portuguese name of 
Jacaranda, the scientific name of Jacaranda Brasilian a has 
been applied to it. There is, however, little doubt that several 
species of Trijptolomea yield rosewood in the province of Bahia. 
The demand for rosewood has lately fallen off ; for while in 
1854, 5,670 tons, of the value of £82,211, were imported, on 
the average of the three years ending 1861 the imports were 
only 2,000 tons. 
Bosewood exhibits large elongated zones of black irregular 
lines on a reddish brown ground, of various tints and high lustre. 
The grain varies, — being frequently very coarse, but in selected 
specimens sufficiently fine for the best description of furniture. 
The dark colour in general is too predominant ; but when this 
is not the case, and the lighter ground is disposed in larger 
masses than usual, the wood is considered very beautiful. 
Some of the specimens of Maple wood from North America 
are very ornamental, especially those of the red-flowering 
maple ( Acer rubrum), and the sugar maple (A. sacclmrinum ) . 
It sometimes happens that in very old trees of the former 
species, the grain, instead of following a perpendicular 
direction, is undulated ; and this variety bears the name of 
“curled maple.” This singular arrangement, for which no cause 
has ever been assigned, is never witnessed in young trees, nor 
in the branches of such as exhibit it in the trunk. It is also 
less conspicuous at the centre than near the circumference. 
Trees offering this disposition are rare, and do not exist in the 
proportion of one to a hundred. The serpentine direction of 
the fibre, which renders them difficult to split and to work, pro- 
duces, in the hands of a skilful mechanic, the most beautiful 
effects of light and shade. These effects are rendered more 
striking if, after smoothing the surface of the wood with a 
