vii 1 Branch, flower, and fruit of the Cork Oak 2 Cork-tree in the Botanic Garden, Chelsea 12 Branch and flowers of the Chesnut 13 Branch and fruit of the Beech. 16 Branch, flower, and fruit of the Service-tree 17 Branch and flower of the Birch 18 Branch and flower of the Alder 19 Branch and flower of the Maple 22 Branch and flower of the Horse-Chesnut. 23 Branch and flower of the White Poplar 24 Branch of the Lombardy Poplar 25 Branch and flower of the Osier Willow 42 Grapes 43 Currant, Gooseberry, Raspberry, Strawberry, & Mulberry 261 44 Elderberry, Cloud-berry, Bramble-berry, and Bilberry 45 Gourds 275 283 291 297 310 315 321 331 332 333 334 55 The Shaddock. 336 62 Monkey's Bread, branch, flower, and fruit 63 Pine-apple, plant 66 The Alligator Pear, branch, flower, and fruit. 67 The Anchovy Pear 382 383 68 The Custard Apple, branch, flower, and fruit 384 69 Strawberry Pear, flower and fruit 389 70 The Papaw, tree, flower, and fruit 390 71 The Grenadilla, branch, flower, and fruit. 72 The Cocoa-nut, branch, flower, and fruit. 391 393 73 The Cashew-nut, branch, flower, and fruit 77 The Malay Apple, branch, flower, and fruit 79 The Longan, branch, flower, and fruit 81 The Otaheite Hog-plum, branch, flower, and fruit VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. PART I. TIMBER TREES. CHAPTER I. TIMBER is one of the most essential substances in the arts; and, in every situation in which it has been found, mankind appear to have first resorted to it, for habitations, for domestic implements, for the means of transporting themselves and their property by land and by water, and for the formation of their weapons, whether to be used in war or in the chase. The varieties of timber in use among different nations are very many, and not a few of them are but little known in England. It will, therefore, be necessary here to confine our notice to some of the more important. THE OAK. In point of strength, durability, and general application, Oak claims the precedence of all timber; and to England, which has risen to the highest rank among the nations, mainly through her commerce and her marine, the oak, "the father of ships," as it has been called, is inferior in value only to her religion, her liberty, and the spirit and industry of her people. Of the Oak (called Quercus, in Latin), there are fourteen species described by Linnæus. During the last fifty years, so much attention has been paid to this important tree by travellers distinguished for their researches in natural history, that a surprising addition has been made to the number of known B species. Professor Martyn, in his edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, enumerates twenty-six; Willdenow, who wrote in 1805, describes seventy-six; and Persoon, another eminent naturalist of the same date, enumerates eighty-two. At present we have more than a hundred and forty species described by different writers; and of these more than one half belong to America. Twenty-six species were discovered in North America by two indefatigable naturalists, father and son, named Michaux; and Humboldt and Bonpland have mentioned twenty-four others, which they found during the course of their travels in South America. Of the various species of oak, some may be classed with shrubs, others with the most majestic trees of the forest; some are evergreens, and others are deciduous, or lose their leaves during the winter. The species from which the best timber is derived, which is by far the most abundant in Britain, and a native of it, is the COMMON OAK (Quercus robur). The cut opposite exhibits the leaf, flower, and fruit (the type) of this tree. We shall introduce the same mode of illustration in other instances. The oak timber imported from America is much inferior to that of the common oak of England: the oak from the central parts of continental Europe is also inferior, especially in compactness and resistance of cleavage. The knotty oak of England, the “ unwedgeable and gnarled oak," as Shakspeare called it, -and in these two words described its leading properties better than all the botanists, when cut down at a proper age (from fifty to seventy years), is really the best timber that is known. Some timber is harder, some more difficult to rend, and some less capable of being broken across; but none contains all the three qualities in so great and so equal proportions; and thus, for at once supporting a weight, resisting a strain, and not splintering by a |