Nature.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2032, 18 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Nature.

An inspection of the diitcivm, spccim sii-i-.vs the Jiifti-koil diversity in the structure •".u l :i|)j)- rif;ince of the woods, and one is ipiiokiy relieved of the general impression tiint thnj- are all alike, Examined microrcopicaliy, the differences in structure are sufficient for identification of the species,ami at the same time enable one to judge of the suitability of a particular wood for definite uses. So little has been done generally in the microscopical study of the woods for engineering, architectural, or mechanical purposes, that but few arc aware of the variety in form and structure of the wood cells, ducts and special fibres which make up the woody tissue of the different species. An expert can readily determine whether a certain wood, used for railroad ties, will sustain the service of a trunk line, or is only suitable for a branch of limited traffic. In the coniform, which includes the pines, cedars, larches, red woods, spruces and firs, as a rule, each layer of growth only has two kinds of wool cells called tracheids, one of thin walls and a large lumen, and the other of thick walls and a small lumen; when the former predominates, making nearly all of the layer, the wood is generally soft, as in the white pine (pinnsstrobus, L.) the cedars, redwoods, spruces and firs. When the thick walled cells form one-fourth to one-half of the layer, the wood is much harder, as in the long leaf yellow pine (pinus palustris, Mill), pinns mills and the larches. On the thinned walled cells of all the species of the coni-fer,-c arc dome like or lenticular markings, principally on the sides parallel to the medullary rays. The thick walled colls are often marked on the sides at right angles to the medullary rays. The coniform have more or less rcsinons products, and the presence or absence of the upright resin canals aid in distinguishing the genera, while the form and character of the medullary rays, the presence or absence of resin ducts, the diameter of the cells, enable the species to he identified. In the alburnum or sap wood, the starch is confined to the cells around the resin canals and in the cells of the medullan’ rays. The cellular structure of the oaks, chestnuts, hickories, ashes, walnuts, maples, beeches, birches, and magnolias is far more complex and more highly differentiated than that of the conifers; beside the wood eclis, there are ducts, vessels and special colls containing starch in the alburnum or sap wood. In nearly all the species of the first five orders mentioned, the ducts grow in concentric rows, indie first of the season's growth; those which form later may be inclined through the layer of wood cells, becoming smaller as they approach the outer portion In the live oak, the duds run radially through the ring, and the small fibres arc nearly solid, giving the wood great hardness,making itso valuable for ship building.

Erastus Brooks writes as follows of the big trees of California : The big trees, so famous in the country and the world over, where they arc known, were tlie object of our last visit after leaving the Vosemitc Valley. It cost a ride from six o’clock in in the morning to six in the evening, with rest of little more than an hour. One-half of the ride, lirst from the valley and then to the big trees, made a double climb of about three thousand feet above, the sea. These high climbs, even with six horses, mean but about two miles an hour, and the descent is less than live miles. Wc rode in about twelve hours forty-four miles, but only those who have traversed the Rockies and the Sierra range can know what work it is to get over the roads built upon the sides of the mountains, and so narrow that there is no room to pass, and, fortunately, no people who want to pass, except at the station for changing horses. Rut to the big trees. The land granted to the State covers four sections and the whole is under the control of afsocalled “guardian,” or caretaker, who knows how to profit by Ids place in the sale of cones, seeds, works in the wood, canes, etc., cut from the monarchs of the forest, dead and living. There are several hundreds of these monarchs and cutting or maiming them in any way is forbidden by law. Rut the law has not been respected, and when the curious thousands and more come each year, the law is not likely to be obeyed. Wo visited the largest of the number first, “ the Grizzly Giant,” at Mariposa Grove, half burnt up years gone by the fire fiends, who, as herders of sheep, campers or hampers, set lire to the woods. Three-fourths of all the big trees have been thus scorched or burned. Many of them, which seem wholly dead in their lower trunks, flourish at their majestic tops. The Grizzly Giant is thirty three feet in diameter, and the next in size is the “ Wamona,” measuring twenty-eight feet in diameter. The circumference of the (irst was, by our hasty measurement, ninety-five feet, and under the great limbs of the Wamona wc rode with our six-horse team and twelve people, the tree covering the fourseated stage, and more than the height and length of two of the horses and the long and high stage coach. This passage-way had been out from the body of tree. The trunk of the big tree wo visited at Pueblo, on our way to the Pacific, had, before being cut down, the modest age of three hundred and eighty-eight years, and a circumference of only twenty-eight feet, but it cost two hundred and fifty dollars to cut it down in June, 1883. It was and is the oldest landmark of the country, and to add to its elevation we are assured that fourteen men hung upon one limb and thirty-six persons were massacred while camping near it. Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, Wild Bill and other Indian Scouts are among those who were familiar with the past history of this monarch of the forest at Pueblo ; hut the Pueblo tree was as a pigmy compared with the great giants in the United States Park at Mariposa we have just loft.

Mr-R.ARolfe , writing in the lianh nrr'« Chroniclr on the relation between flowers and insects, points out that Dr. Watts, the great hymn writer, indulged in poetic license when be said that the bee “ gathers honey all the day From every opening Mower.” As matter of fact, bees visit comparatively few kinds of Mowers, (here being many sorts which produce no honey, and others which secrete it in such a manner that the industrious insects cannot get at it. According to Hr. K. llonavia, a correspondent of the (iiirih’iirrs ’ Chronirh\ the lemon is much more valuable as a febrifuge than is commonly supposed. lie thinks it. ought to be more extensively employed in medicine, especially in India, where, when compounded with tin extract from the Kbatta orange, lemon juice is as cll'ective as quinine in the treatment of simple intermittent fever Just at present the demand for lemons is so small in comparison with the crop Dint much of the fruit has gone to waste in Sicily. A New Zealand mushroom, which grows on the trunks of trees, is exported in large quantities to China, where it is use<l m the preparation of soups. Its botanical designation is Hirneola polytriclia, lien dry, (bo mushroom becomes shrivelled lip. and is as hard as horn ; when wet, it is soft and elastic, almost sub gelatinous, ft grows in compact gregarious masses. Hie expoilaveraee over a hundred tons a year, north probably not less than Tot) a ton at, the p-ace of shipment,and much more m t oina. One would hardly sttpimsc that seeds would grow better for bang let according to (he experience of a nmnbei ot European botanist?, the seeds of many New /(■aland plants will not germinate readily until after they have been exposed to Die action of frost. There, is reason also to believe that Hima’a.van seeds are improved by similar exposure to a low tcmpciat'irc.