The uses of plants : a manual of economic botany with special reference to vegetable products introduced during the last fifty years / by G.S. Boulger.

George Simonds Boulger

Date:: 1889

Credit: The uses of plants : a manual of economic botany with special reference to vegetable products introduced during the last fifty years / by G.S. Boulger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$durable, and is used on the Continent for water-pipes, casks, beams, and cabinet-work ; and in England for. hop-poles, fencing, pit-props, tramway-sleepers, and wheelwrights’ work. Affording a rapid return] to capital, even on poor mountain-land, no tree is now so extensively planted in Britain. Pscudotsuga Douglasii, Carriere, the OREGON PiNE, or Douglas or Nootka P'IR, abundant in North- west America, furnishes fine, straight, and durable timber, valuable for spars, but, from occasional want of cohesion between the annual layers, not so good for topmasts as Dantzic or Kauri Pine. The flagstaff at Kew, of this wood, is 159 feet long. Though more rapid in its growth, and probably, therefore, less durable in Scotland than in Oregon, this species seems in many respects more valuable than Larch. Dainmara australis, Lambert, the Kauri or COWDIE Pine of New Zealand, largely used there and in Australia, is for size, lightness, elasticity, strength, and durability unrivalled, whether for masts or decks. It also yields abundance of the valuable Kauri gum or resin. In 1851 the eight timbers classed Ai for ship- building at Lloyd’s were Oak {Querciis Robur, L.), Live Oak {Q. virens, Ait.), African Oak (Szuictenia sencgaleiisis Desv.), Teak, Sal, GreenHEART, Mora, and Iron-Bark, of which Greeniieart {Nec- tandra Rodioii, Schomb.) and IMORA {J\Io7'a cxcelsa, Benth.), had then been but recently introduced from British Guiana ; whilst IRON-BARK {Eiicalyptus rcsiniftra, Sm.) was only added to the list during the Exhibition.$