Chapter 9

Fucus Vesiculosus.

The higher tribes of Algæ embrace the sea-weeds; these are for the most part broad, leaf-like expansions of "thallus," composed of cellular tissue, they sometimes grow to an enormous length. Humboldt mentions the sea-grass as extending for miles, and forming continuous extensions of two or three hundred feet, and theMacrocystis pyriferaattains to the length of more than a thousand. The common Bladder-wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) was formerly much used to procure soda from, its ashes containing a considerable quantity, it is also used for manure; theLaminaria digitatais eaten under the name of "tangle," and a nutritious jelly is made from the "Carigeen moss" (Chondrus crispus).

2.Characeæ(Charas).

Charas.

These are a kind of fresh-water Algæ, composed of tubes of cellular tissue; they are peculiar, from the fact that the spores of the plant have cilia, giving to them the powers of motion and enabling them to swim away and spread the plant afar off. It is in the Charas that the peculiar circulation of the granules of "endochrome" called "cyclosis" is best seen.

3.Fungi(Fungals), including Mushrooms, &c.

Eatable Mushroom (Agaricus campestris).

The Fungi comprise a great variety of vegetable growths, from the mould which grows on any animal or vegetable substance, to the mushroom. Some of the moulds or mildews found on various decaying substances arepeculiar to them, and in many cases exceedingly destructive. The microscopic fungusPuccinea graminis, is the parasite which fixes itself to corn and produces the disease known as mildew, and theUredo segetum(another microscopic fungus) causes the "smut;" the "bunt" is caused by theUredo fœtida, and the "spur," or "ergot," which attacks rye, is caused by theAcinula clavis. These fungi completely destroy the grain of corn, in which they form, and propagate in the most rapid manner; the ergot is moreover a dangerous poison to those who eat the bread made of rye infected by it. The Truffle (Tuber cibarium) is a kind of underground fungus, and is esteemed a dainty. Mushrooms are also fungi, and several species are sufficiently wholesome; these are the Field Mushroom (Agaricus campestris) and the Fairy-ring Mushroom (Agaricus pratensis).

4.Lichenes(Lichens),

Lichen.

Are those dry scaly growths forming grey, green, or yellow spots on the barks of trees and in various other places, and they grow in a sort of leaf or scale called a "thallus." They are used as articles of food and as "dye-stuffs;" theCetraria Icelandicais the "Iceland Moss" used here for making a sort of nutritious drink or jelly, the natives of Iceland, however, use it as common food; theCladonia rangifarina, or Reindeer Moss, is the chief food of that useful creature which forms the whole property of the Laplander; and theRoccella tinctoriais the substance from which the dye called "archil" is procured.

5.Filices(Ferns).

Fern.

The Ferns are a very numerous order of acrogenous plants, growing in the temperate regions from a rhizome or underground stalk (commonly called itsroot), which throws up "fronds" or leaves with a strong midrib; this midrib is commonly called its stalk, but in tropical countries the fern stalk rises above ground to the height of 30 or 40 feet, and then it is seen that the ordinary stalks are but the midribs of the fronds. There are between two and three thousand species of fern. The fronds open in a peculiar manner, unwinding as it were from a round ball. The "sorri" or seed-cases are situated at the back of the fronds in little brown spots, each of which is found to consist of a heap or collection of round capsules, and if these be placed under the microscope they have the appearance of little membraneous cases covered with net-like markings, and at the upper part a striated band of a brown colour, which after a time stretches out into a nearly straight line, tearing open the bag or capsule, and a number of seeds escape. Ferns grow best in damp and shady situations, and will thrive well in damp mould under a glass case.

6.Marchantiaceæ(Liver-worts).

Liver-worts.

These Liver-worts are much like Lichens, growing between and upon stones near springs and moist places, and forming a broad thallus or root from which grow cup-shaped sporangia or seed-cases. TheMarchanta polymorphais one of its chief members.

Scale-moss.

The Scale-mosses grow in moist places and under the stems of trees and plants. Their appearance is scaly, and they have a sort of stalk.

Urn-moss.

Urn-mosses comprise the most ordinary of the mosses, the "Brium," which grows on the ground everywhere, forming tufts; its fructification resembles an urn, and hence its name.

Club-moss.

These are very beautiful mosses, of a bright green colour, growing in moist places. There are about 200 species of club-mosses known. The common Lycopodium is its most characteristic member. It grows well with ferns under a glass case.

Horsetail.

The Equisetaceæ are the highest of the Acrogens, and nearly resemble the Endogens; they grow in ditches and pools, have a hollow stem with joints at regular intervals from each of which a whorl of green modified leaves arises; they are very full of earthy matter (silica), and one kind (Equisetum Hyemale), called Dutch Rush, is so rough with it that it is used for polishing and scraping many articles.

The second division of the vegetable kingdom are the Endogenæ, which are those plants growing from a central bud only, as the palms, bamboos, and canes of all kinds, the grasses and all graminiferous or grain-bearing plants, as wheat, barley, &c. They have but one cotyledon in the seed and have no bark, but in place thereof a kind of natural varnish or thin coating of silica; this varnish or external polish is seen in the stalks of corn and on canes. Their leaves are often of great size, the veins run parallel to each other (fig. 8), they often grow from an expanded base which surrounds the stalk as in corn, and branch off at regular intervals making knobs or joints, as may be seen in the bamboo cane (figs. 9 and 10), in other cases they branch off spirally, and when fallen form a sort of trellis-work on the stem (as in some of the palms) but always in a regular manner. The wood of this family of vegetables has the same porous structure as cane (figs. 11, 12, 13,14), and is often hollow in the centre, becoming more and more solid according to the age of the tree. The stems of these plants are limited in growth and soon acquire their full size, which never exceeds eighteen or twenty inches in diameter although some of the palms are nearly 150 feet high. When the stem has acquired its full size, the continual production of more woody fibres makes it impossible that these (like the exogenæ) can have a very extended period of existence, for when every part of the stem is full of woody matter, the plant ceases to grow from obstruction to the circulation of the juices. The stems of some of this family are always hollow like the stalks of corn; this arrangement allows of great elevations without bending,and is found to be the form which gives the greatest strength from a given quantity of material—one of those beautiful mechanical perfections of nature which man first admired and then endeavoured to imitate.

FIG. 8.—ENDOGENOUS LEAF,SHOWING PARALLEL VENATION.

FIG. 9.—BAMBOO CANE,SHOWING JOINT.

FIG. 10.—BAMBOO CANE,SPLIT OPEN.

FIG. 11.—PERPENDICULAR SECTIONOF ENDOGENOUS WOOD.

FIG. 12.—PART OF THE SAME,MAGNIFIED.

FIG. 13.—TRANSVERSE SECTIONOF ENDOGENOUS WOOD.

FIG. 14.—PART OF THE SAME,MAGNIFIED.

Some of the palms and other endogenæ are of a most beautiful form, and are moreover quite as useful as beautiful, furnishing food to the inhabitants of many regions, especially the Arabs of the Desert, who carry the dried fruit of the Date-palm with them, on crossing these vast plains of sand, as their chief food. The Plantain (Musa sapientum) forms a most beautiful and graceful object, with its enormous leaves springing up from the ground by their midrib in clusters, and extending upwards for 20 or more feet in graceful curves, affording a shady and cool retreat beneath them from the burning rays of the sun; the fruit is also one of the necessaries of life in the regions where they abound. The Fan-palm is another beautiful specimen, from the fan-like leaves of which the punkahs or Indian fans are made. The Palmyra palm furnishes leaves which are used to thatch houses, the sap is drunk as a refreshing beverage, and when evaporated yields a kind of sugar called "juggery," from which palm-wine is made.

The palms were amongst the first trees created, their fossil stems being constantly found; they were even then associated with the elephant and rhinoceros, and although these are found chiefly in the northern parts of Europe, yet it is much more reasonable to suppose that the climate of these parts has changed, than that these two favourites of the sunny regions should have had their natures changed.

Among the useful members of the endogenæ may be mentioned the Maranta Arundinaceæ, or Arrow-root plant, which is thus described by Dr. Baird:—"It is a genus of monocotyledonous plants, belonging to the natural order Cannaceæ or Marantaceæ, and composed of herbs which have a well-developed rhizome or tuberous root containing a large quantity of fecula or starch. The species are natives for the most part, of tropical America, a few being also found in India. The structure of the flowers is remarkable, and the fruit fleshy. The most important species is the Maranta Arundinaceæ, a plant which is extensively cultivated in the West Indies, the southern parts of the United States, and in the Isle of France, for the sake of its root, which affords the substance so well-known as Arrow-root.This root consists of a tuber of a peculiar form, and contains a large proportion of fecula; the stem is upwards of three feet high, and the flowers are white, delicate, and small. In Cayenne the tubers are eaten by the natives, roasted, as a cure for intermittent fevers, and when bruised, are applied by them to wounds, and considered more especially as a specific against those caused by poisoned arrows, hence the name of Arrow-root."

According to Dr. Livingstone, the inhabitants of Angola live almost exclusively upon the Tapioca plant. He thus describes the mode of preparing it, &c.:—"They (speaking of the half-caste Portuguese) subsist chiefly on the Manioc, and as that can be eaten either raw, roasted, or boiled, as it comes from the ground, or fermented in water and then roasted or dried after fermentation and baked, or pounded or rasped into meal and cooked as farina, or made into confectionery with butter and sugar, it does not so soon pall upon the palate as one might imagine when told that it constitutes their principal food. The leaves, boiled, make an excellent vegetable for the table, and when eaten by goats, their milk is much increased. The wood is a good fuel, and yields a large quantity of potash.... The root, rasped while raw, placed upon a cloth, and rubbed with the hands while water is poured upon it, parts with its starchy glutinous matter, and this, when it settles at the bottom of the vessel and the water is poured off, is placed in the sun till nearly dry to form tapioca, the process of drying is completed on an iron plate over a slow fire, the mass being stirred meanwhile with a stick; when dry, it appears agglutinated into little globules, and is in the form we see in the tapioca of commerce."

Although none of this family of plants produce building timber (according to our notions of that article), yet it is questionable whether we have a greater number of uses for our exogenous woods than are found by the natives of those countries where the Endogenæ abound for palm stems and bamboo canes; as the Grecian styles of architecture arose from the imitation of structures of timber, so the Hindoo and Chinese styles have arisen from imitation of bamboobuildings. There is scarcely a constructive use that can be imagined to which this convenient material is not applied. In the "Penny Cyclopædia" (article "Bambusa") is the following:—

"The purposes to which different species of bamboo are applied, are so numerous that it would be difficult to point out an object in which strength and elasticity are requisite, and for which lightness is no objection, to which the stems are not adapted in the countries where they grow. The young shoots of some species are cut when tender, and eaten like asparagus. The full-grown stems, while green, form elegant cases, exhaling a perpetual moisture, and capable of transporting fresh flowers for hundreds of miles; when ripe and hard, they are converted into bows, arrows, and quivers, lance-shafts, the masts of vessels, bed-posts, walking-sticks, the poles of palanquins, the floors and supporters of rustic bridges, and a variety of similar purposes. In a growing state the spiny kinds are formed into stockades, which are impenetrable to any but regular infantry aided by artillery.

"By notching their sides the Malays make wonderfully light scaling-ladders, which can be conveyed with facility where heavier machines could not be transported. Bruised and crushed in water, the leaves and stems form Chinese paper, the finer qualities of which only are improved by a mixture of raw cotton, and by more careful pounding.

"The leaves of a small species are the material used by the Chinese for the lining of their tea-chests. Cut into lengths and the partitions knocked out, they form durable water-pipes, or by a little contrivance are made into excellent cases for holding rolls of papers; slit into strips they afford a most durable material for weaving into mats, baskets, window-blinds, and even the sails of boats. Finally, the larger and thicker truncheons are exquisitely carved by the Chinese into beautiful ornaments. It is however more especially for building purposes that the bamboo is important (fig. 15). According to Marsden, in Sumatra the framework of the houses of the natives is chiefly composed of this material. In the floorings, whole stems four or five inches in diameterare laid close to each other, and across these laths of split bamboo about an inch wide are fastened down with filaments of rattan-cane. The sides of the houses are closed in with the bamboo opened and rendered flat by splitting or notching the circular joints on the outside, clipping away the corresponding divisions within and laying in the sun to dry pressed down with weights. Whole bamboos often form the upright timbers, and the house is generally roofed in with a thatch of narrow split bamboos six feet long, placed in regular layers, each reaching within two feet of the extremity of that beneath it, by which a treble covering is formed. Another and most ingenious roof is also formed, by cutting large straight bamboos of sufficient length to reach from the ridge to the eaves, then splitting them exactly in two, knocking out the partitions and arranging them in close order, with the hollow or inner sides uppermost; after which a second layer with the outer or convex sides up, is placed upon the other in such a manner that each of the convex falls into the two contiguous concave pieces, covering their edges, the latter serving as gutters to carry off the rain that falls upon the upper or convex layer."

FIG. 15.—HUT OF BAMBOO.

The Endogenæ are divided into twelve orders, as follows:—

1.Graminacæ(Grasses).

Wheat, Barley, Meadow-grass.

The Graminacæ comprise the great bulk of those plants which supply man and the lower animals with food, for it contains all the grasses and corn-bearing plants, including rice, maize, wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Upon these all the Ruminants of the earth feed, and millions of human beings taste no other kind of food. There are nearly 4000 species of graminaceous plants, rice and maize being the most broadly extended, forming the chief food of the Chinese, Hindoos, and other nations; wheat is here the most valuable grain, and is now grown in all parts of Europe and America. Humboldt, in his "Views of Nature," gives an interesting account of the first wheat grown in New Spain. He says:—

"A negro slave of the great Cortes was the first who cultivated wheat in New Spain, from three seeds which he found in some rice brought from Spain for the use of the troops. In the Franciscan convent of Quito I saw, preserved as a relic, the earthen vessel which had contained the first wheat sown in Quito by the Franciscan monk Fra Jodoco Rixi de Gante, a native of Ghent in Flanders. The first crop was raised in front of the convent, on the Plazuela di San Francisco, after the wood which then extended from the foot of the volcano of Pinchincha had been cleared. The monks, whom I frequently visited at Quito, begged me to explain the inscription, which, according to their conjecture, contained some hidden allusion to wheat. On examining the vessel, I read in old German the words,

"'Let him who drinks from me ne'er forget his God.'

"This old German drinking-cup excited in me feelings of veneration. Would that everywhere on the New Continent the names of those were preserved who, instead of devastating the soil by bloody conquests, confided to it the first fruits of Ceres."

Sedges.

These plants much resemble the Grasses, they afford but little nourishment, however, to cattle, having but little starchy matter in them, and being but little succulent. The Cyperus Papyrus is the plant from which the ancient "papyrus" was made, and is probably (according to Dr. Baird) the plant termed in Scripture the Bull-rush.

Arum.

The Araceæ include the Arum maculatum, or Cuckoo-pint, peculiar in having the flowers enclosed by a kind of sheath formed like a leaf, and called a "spathe." The "Portland Sago" is obtained from the Rhizome of this plant, but some of the species of this order are poisonous. The Dumb-cane (Caladium Segninum) paralyses the tongue, if chewed.

Bull-rush.

The Typhaceæ are the Bull-rush tribe, having the Typha latifolia or great Reed-mace for its characteristic member. It grows in ditches and marshy places. The young shoots of the Bull-rush, which resemble asparagus, are eaten by the Cossacks as food.

Meadow Saffron.

This includes many plants which have bulbous roots, some of them being poisonous. The Colchicum autumnale, or Meadow Saffron, is the type of this order; it grows in moist meadows, producing a purple flower which appears before the leaves. The root or bulb, and the seeds, are used in medicine.

Lily.

The Liliaceæ are a very numerous tribe, including the Lilies, Hyacinths, and Tulips, the Onion, Garlic, Asparagus, the Cape Aloe, Yucca, and many others; they are for the most part bulbous plants, having simple leaves enclosing the stem. The Palms are included in this order; they are among the tallest and most graceful of the vegetable tribes, and in the countries where they abound are applied to almost every purpose that can be enumerated.

Narcissus.

The Amaryllidaceæ are the Narcissus tribe, including also the Agave, or American Aloe, and the Snow-drop. The greater number of species belonging to this order are natives of the Cape of Good Hope, some of these are poisonous; the juice of the Cape Blood-flower (Hæmanthus Toxicarius) is used by the Hottentots to poison their arrows with.

Crocus.

The Iridaceæ include the Crocus (Crocus sativa), the Corn-flag (Gladeolus communis), and the Blue-flag (Iris Germanica); the bulb of the Iris Florentina, is dried and used for various purposes, it has a scent resembling violets and is sold at druggists' shops by the name of orris-root, a corruption of iris-root.

Butterfly Orchis.

The family of the Orchis. Dr. Baird, in describing them, says:—"They are almost all herbaceous, a very few only being somewhat shrubby in their growth; some live in the ground, and besides the ordinary roots have bulbs or starch-bearing tubercles; others are what may be called pseudo-parasites, living attached to the bark of trees. These plants abound in the forests of tropical countries, where the climate is moist, and are generally known by the name of Epiphytes. The flowers vary very much in shape, form, and colour, and in many instances have a strikingresemblance to insects, various birds, and animals, as Oncidium, in which the resemblance is to butterflies, &c.; Cychnoches, in which (in one species) the likeness is strikingly similar to a swan; Peristeria, one species of which is called the Sprito-Santo plant, of Panama, and in whose flower there is the likeness of a dove descending upon the lip, &c. A curious fact in this part of their history is, that in the same plant, on the same stem, and even on the same head of flowers, we find flowers so different in appearance that we might place them in different genera."

Pond Weed.

Water-plants, called "pond-weeds," and grow on both fresh and salt water. The marine species, Zostera marina, is dried and used for stuffing mattresses.

Flowering Rush.

Of this order the Butomas umbellatus, a sort of rush, producing very handsome pink flowers in umbels, growing in ditches and by the sides of rivers, is the most characteristic member.

Water Plantain.

The two chief members of this order are the Alisma Plantago or Water Plantain, which grows in ditches, having its flowers in the form of panicles, and the Sagittaria sagittæfolia or Arrowhead.

The third great natural family of plants are the Exogenæ. They comprise all the trees and shrubs of the temperate and colder regions, together with many of the flowering plants. They are characterised by certain peculiarities which can be at once recognised, such as the twisted and branched form of the stem, the possession of bark, leaves having the veins covering them running in all directions and forming a network, and the seeds containing two cotyledons; the wood, moreover, is deposited in rings (figs. 16, 17, 18, 19), one of which is formed every year, by the new wood being produced on the outside of the old, and between it and the bark. This deposition takes place as follows: after the rains of winter and early spring have well saturated the earth with moisture, and the warmth of spring has begun to penetrate to the roots of the plants, a development of the points of each fibrile or radicle takes place, forming new spongioles; these, being formed of new porous cellular tissue, begin to absorb (by endosmose) the moisture of the earth, which entering at all these thousands of minute spongioles at once, collects and rises in the vessels of the trunk and branches,and arriving at the vessels forming a plexis on the surface of every leaf, begins to be changed by the action of the sun's rays, absorbing carbon and giving out oxygen from the carbonic acid always contained in the air. The sapwhich has thus risen is the juice of the earth in which the plant grows, containing several earthy salts and vegetable extract drawn from the manure or decaying vegetation contained in the mould, together with carbonic acid dissolved in the fluid; this carbonic acid is changed by the sun's rays as well as that which was contained in the air, and the carbon uniting with the watery part of the sap, forms the green substance before alluded to, called chlorophyll, which is the green colouring matter of all plants, and is the basis of the wood. The altered sap descends between the wood and the bark, and forms a deposit gradually, which at the end of the year is a complete ring of wood surrounding the wood of former years. This circulation of juices continues through the summer, until, the cold weather coming on and the light being diminished, the sap neither rises nor is the leaf nourished by it, when it decays and falls off.

Perpendicular and transverse sections through cedar and elm wood.

The age of exogenous wood can be ascertained—where the centre has not decayed—by counting the rings, one only being deposited every year; and it is truly astonishing to find that some trees will continue to live and flourish for several thousand years! There does not, in truth, appear to be any limit assigned to the life of an exogenous tree if it escape accidents; for, although decay inevitably attacks the heartwood, and a cavity is the result, yet, the new wood continuing to be deposited on the outer part, the vitality of the tree is kept up, and its size continues to increase.

The Baobab or Monkey Bread-fruit trees, growing at the mouths of the Senegal, have been estimated by Adinson to be upwards of six thousand years old, and are, in all probability, the oldest relics of organic life existing at the present time. The cedars of Lebanon are supposed to have existed longer than the records of history. The Yew at Braburn, in Kent, is at least three thousand years old; and that of Fortingal nearly as much.

Dr. Livingstone, describing the Mowana or Baobab tree (fig. 20), thus comments upon its power of withstanding injury:—

FIG. 20.—THE BAOBAB TREE.

"No external injury, not even a fire, can destroy this tree from without, nor can any injury be done from within, as it is quite common to find it hollow, and I have seen one in which twenty or thirty men could lie down and sleep as in a hut. Nor does cutting down exterminate it, for I saw instances in Angola in which it continued to grow in length, after it was lying on the ground. Those trees, called exogenous, grow by means of successive layers on the outside; the inside may be dead, or even removed altogether, without affecting the life of the tree; this is the case with most of the trees of our climate. The other class is called endogenous, and increases by layers applied to the inside, and when the hollow of the tree is full, the growth is stopped, and the tree must die. Any injury is felt mostseverely by the first class on the bark, by the second on the inside, while the inside of the exogenous may be removed, or the outside of the endogenous may be cut, without stopping the growth in the least. The Mowana possesses the power of both. The reason is, that each of the laminæ possesses its own independent vitality; in fact, the Baobab is rather a gigantic bulb run up to seed than a tree. The roots, which may often be observed extending along the surface of the ground forty or fifty yards from the trunk, also retain their vitality after the tree is laid low, and the Portuguese now know that the best way to treat them is to let them alone, for they occupy much more room when cut down than when growing."

On examining the wood of the exogenæ, it will be found that in the very centre is a small column of cellular tissue, called the pith, and that from this, fine layers of the same substance radiate towards the circumference. These are called the medullary rays, or silver-grain; they form an exterior layer or ring of cellular substance on the outside of the wood, which is called the cambium. The lightness of wood is owing to its porosity, and, on examining a transverse section under the microscope (figs. 17 and 19), it will be seen how little of real space is occupied in wood by solid substance. The spaces between the wall-work of woody matter in the tree are all filled with sap, and hence it is that "green wood" is so much heavier than that which is well seasoned. It is its lightness and strength, together with the ease with which it can be cut and fashioned, which renders wood so exceedingly useful; but its inflammability and liability to decay are great barriers to its more general use.

The leaves of the exogenæ have their veins always in the form of a network, and not running parallel with each other, as in the endogenæ (fig. 21).

Of the three divisions of the vegetable kingdom, the exogenæ alone furnish building timber, properly so called, and it is doubtful whether nature has supplied a more generally applicable substance than wood; being a bad conductor, it can be handled in the coldest weather, whichmetal cannot, and, being easily cut or split, can be fashioned into almost any form.

FIG. 21—EXOGENOUS LEAF, SHOWING RETICULATED VENATION.

The woods mostly in use for general purposes are the different kinds of pine, as American Pine, Norway Pine, yellow and white Deal, Mahogany, Oak, Beech, Elm, Ash, and Maple. In the "Penny Cyclopædia," under the article "Wood," is the following description of the different kinds used by cabinet-makers, &c.:—

"The woods that are used by the cabinet-maker for furniture of a more delicate kind are called 'fancy woods.' The use of these has become much more general since the introduction of the art of veneering, and now that this is done by machinery instead of by hand, a number of woods are used for furniture and other purposes, which, on account of their scarcity, could have been formerly used only to a very limited extent. The most common of the fancy woods, and that which is most used by cabinet-makers, is Mahogany. This wood is the produce of the 'Swienteria Mahogani.'

"Next in point of importance and use to Mahogany, is Rosewood. This wood obtains its name from its fragrance, and is the produce of a mimosa from the forests of Brazil; in veneering it affords about eight plates to the inch.

"King-wood is a beautiful wood much in use, brought from Brazil in logs four feet long and about five inches wide, and is used only for delicate articles; it is said to be theproduce of a species of Baphia, a genus of Leguminous plants.

"Beef-wood is a very heavy wood of a pale red colour, and is brought from New Holland in logs nine feet long and thirteen or fourteen inches wide; the tree from which this is obtained is unknown to botanists, as well as most of those producing the fancy woods of commerce.

"Tulip-wood is brought into the market in very small pieces, not more than four feet long and five inches in diameter, so that probably it is the production of a shrub; it is clouded with red and yellow colours, and is used for bordering and for making small articles, such as caddies and work-boxes.

"Zebra-wood is probably the production of a large tree, as it is cheap enough to be made into tables, pianofortes, &c.; it is coloured brown on a white ground and clouded with black.

"Satin-wood is of a brilliant yellow colour with delicate glowing shades. It is the produce of a plant called Chloroxylon Swienteria, a native of India; it is one of the trees that yield the wood-oil of India, and belongs to the natural order Cedrelaceæ, the same order in which the mahogany is placed; it is found in the market in logs two feet wide and seven or eight feet long.

"Sandal-wood is the produce of a species of Sandoricum belonging to the family Meliaceæ; the wood is of a light brown colour with golden-coloured waves.

"Ebony and Iron-wood are the names given to some very hard woods, the produce of the natural order Ebenaceæ. These woods are mostly brought from India, although some of the species are found in Europe and America.

"There are several other woods occasionally used amongst cabinet-makers, of which little is known, either with regard to the places they come from, or the trees to which they belong. Canary-wood has a yellow colour; Purple-wood has a purple colour, without veins; Snake-wood is of a deep colour with black shades; Calander-wood is a handsome cheap wood taking a high polish, and is brought from Ceylon.

"Other woods are named after the places they come from, as Coromandel-wood, Amboyna-wood, &c."

Woods are largely used as dye-stuffs; the chief of these is log-wood, which has a deep red colour, is very heavy and solid, and yields a great deal of red colouring matter. It is very astringent, and contains tannic and gallic acids, from which properties it produces a deep black colour when mixed with any of the salts of iron; from this peculiarity it is very valuable as a black dye, but the black dye so extensively used for dyeing cloth, is, for the most part, made from galls, or "nut-galls," as they are sometimes called. These are hard round substances found growing on many species of oak, chiefly the "Quercus infectoria," and the best are brought from Aleppo; they are diseased growths produced by a little insect, called the "Cynips Quercus," which deposits its eggs under the epidermis of the leaf, and the juice collects and forms the gall (fig. 22), from the interior of which the larva eats its way out; thus it will be found that every gall must have a little round hole in it, whence the larva of the cynips has issued.

FIG. 22—ALEPPO GALL.

The root of the Madder plant (Rubia tinctorum) produces the most beautiful and permanent of our red dyes, and the cochineal insect (Coccus cacti) obtains its colour from feeding upon the cactus.

A useful and very permanent blue dye is obtained from Indigo, a kind of extract from the plant "Indigofera," growing in India and other places, and many other members of the vegetable kingdom yield dyes and colours used in the arts.

Amongst the various and almost endless purposes to which wood is applied, that of serving as a material to engrave on and print from must not be omitted. The wood used for this purpose is that of the box-tree (Buxus sempervirens), which furnishes a close, even-grained, hard wood, admirably suited to the purpose; and the cultivation and perfecting of this most admirable art, has produced animprovement in book-illustrating which can hardly be sufficiently appreciated.

Wood must have supplied one of the earliest materials with which to erect buildings; the Grecian styles of architecture, beyond doubt, were derived from imitating in stone those structures first made of wood. All the largest members of the vegetable kingdom belong to this division; and indeed the same may be said of size which has been said of age, namely, that there is no limit except from accidental circumstances.

FIG. 23.—WELLINGTONIA GIGANTEA.

In the Crystal Palace at Sydenham is a most wonderful and gigantic specimen of the Wellingtonia Gigantea (fig. 23), one of the class of trees called coniferous, and belonging to the exogens, the bark of which has been stripped off inportions at the place where it grew, each of which being numbered, has enabled them to be re-adjusted in their original places, the result of which is, the whole bark of this most magnificent tree appears as if growing on the timber. It measures 31 feet across at the base, and 93 feet in circumference; the original tree was 363 feet in height, its present height is 116 feet, and the bark is 18 inches thick. The Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria excelsa) sometimes grows to 300 feet in height, and Humboldt, describing a specimen of the Pinus Trigona, says, "This gigantic fir was measured with great care; the girth of the stem at 6-1/4 feet above the ground was often 38 to 45 feet; one stem was 300 feet high, and without branches for the first 192 feet."

As the exogens grow by the addition of woody matter to their circumference, of course the older the tree (other conditions being equal) the larger will be the trunk, but as the new wood is added to the outside, the centre loses its vitality and is liable to the attacks of both animal and vegetable parasites, and is therefore constantly found either decayed or totally destoyed; this is not, however, invariably the case, and many instances are found of wood of a great age remaining sound in the centre. At St. Nicholas in Lorraine is exhibited a plank of walnut wood made into a dining-table which is twenty-five feet wide. Besides timber for various useful purposes, this division of the vegetable kingdom furnishes us with both cotton and linen for clothing, and many of the dye-stuffs for ornamenting such clothing, also with many articles of food (although not so prolific in this respect as the Endogenæ), the potato, most green vegetables, as cabbages, lettuces, are exogenous, together with such roots as carrots, parsnips, &c.

To this class of plants belong many of the most beautiful flowers, and all our fruit-trees, not the least important of which is the fig-tree, although the fig can hardly be called a fruit in the strict sense of the word, being a consolidated mass of flowers within a receptacle. The figs of commerce are produced from the Ficus carica, the fruit being dried in the sun; they form a considerable article of commerce. The celebrated Banyan tree (Ficus indica, fig. 24) is one of thefig tribe, it throws down branches (as do many others of this tribe) which take root in the earth and form fresh stems, so that one of the banyan trees with its off-shoots will cover a space of ground sufficient to shelter a regiment of cavalry, and many of the fig tribe, especially the sycamore (Ficus sycamorus), are planted for the sake of the shelter they supply by their broad crowns of leaves; another of the fig trees (Ficus elastica) supplies a great part of the India-rubber of commerce.

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