TIMBERS 
207 
be taken to avoid plants like Aconitum, with poisonous 
honey. 
VII. Timbers. Ferns and Monocotyledons, with 
their scattered arrangement of vascular bundles and usual 
absence of any regular growth in thickness, do not yield 
much useful wood, or at any rate such as can be sawn into 
planks, though the entire stems of bamboos, palms, &c. are 
extensively used in building in the tropics, and split portions 
are used in roofing, &c. The stems of Arundo, Calamus, 
&c., furnish canes. The most generally useful timber plants 
are the Coniferae, their wood being soft and their stems very 
straight, while the resin acts as a preservative against decay ; 
the chief genera used are Abies, Pinus, Larix, Sequoia, 
Tsuga, Cedrus, Agathis, Picea, Chamaecyparis, Taxus, &c. 
There are a vast number of trees of other families also used 
for timber, some soft-wooded, some hard-wooded ; the latter 
are usually trees of slow growth, and commonly more or less 
xerophytic. Among the most important genera are Acacia, 
Acer (maple, &c.), Ailanthus, Albizzia, Artocarpus, Betula 
(birch), Brya, Bucklandia, Buxus (box), Caraipa, Casuarina, 
Carya (hickory), Carpinus, Castanea (chestnut), Catalpa, 
Cedrela, Celtis, Chloroxylon (satinwood), Chickrassia, 
Corylus, Curtisia, Dalbergia, Diospyros (ebony, &c.), 
Duguetia, Eucalyptus (gum, jarrah, &c.), Fagus, Flindersia, 
Fraxinus, Gleditschia, Gmelina, Grevillea, Guaiacum, Hy- 
menaea, Juglans, Liriodendron, Melia, Mesua, Metrosideros, 
Michelia, Ocotea, Ostrya, Pericopsis, Platanus (plane), 
Populus, Pterocarpus, Quercus (oak), Rhus, Robinia, Salix, 
Sambucus, Santalum, Schleichera, Shorea (sal), Swietenia 
(mahogany), Tectona (teak), Tilia, Tristania, Ulmus, Xylia, 
Zelkova, &c. 
VIII. Miscellaneous useful plants and pro- 
ducts. Among products which can scarcely be classified 
under any of the above heads may be mentioned, cork 
(Quercus), vegetable ivory (Phytelephas, &c.), teasels (Dipsa- 
cus), weights and beads (Abrus, &c.). Other miscellaneous 
uses are made of plants in nearly all countries, especially in 
the tropics. 
Ornamental plants may also be mentioned here. Most 
are cultivated for their flowers ; horticulturists endeavour by 
