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NOTES ON FOREST TREES. No. XXIII.

LEAF AND FRUIT OF THE CAMPHOR TREE.

THE CAMPHOR TREE, (Dryobalanops camphora.) THE celebrated Camphor Tree of Sumatra is one of the largest trees of the forests of that island; it is also found in Borneo, and several other eastern islands of the East Indian Archipelago. The greatest part of the Camphor, however, which is brought to Europe, is produced by a species of laurel (Laurus camphora). That which is afforded by the tree now under notice, seldom reaches our market, being carried chiefly to China, where it fetches a very high price. That which is received in England comes from Japan, in casks

and chests.

The Camphor yielded by the Dryobalanops camphora, is found occupying portions of about a foot, or a foot and a half, in the heart of the tree. The natives, in searching for the camphor, make a deep incision in the trunk, about fourteen or eighteen feet from the ground, with a billing, or Malay axe, and when it is discovered, the tree is felled, and cut into junks a fathom long. The same tree yields a liquid or oily matter, which has nearly the same properties as the camphor, and is supposed to be the first stage of its formation. The precise age when this tree begins to yield camphor has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained, but the young trees are known to yield only oil, that is, camphor in a liquid state.

The method of extracting the oil, is by making a deep incision with a small aperture, into the body of the tree, and the oil, if any, immediately gushes out and is received in bamboos. The product of a middling-sized tree is about eight China catties, or about eleven pounds, and a large tree will yield nearly double that quantity. It is said that trees which have been cut for the purpose of obtaining the oil, and left standing in that state, will often produce camphor eight or ten years after, but it is of an inferior quality. Camphor is also prepared, in China, from the leaves and branches of a tree, called by the Chinese tchang. They take some branches fresh from the tree, chop them very small, and lay them to steep in springwater for three days and three nights. After they have been soaked in this manner, they are put into a kettle, where they are boiled for a certain time, during which they are kept constantly stirred with a stick made of willow. When they perceive that the sap of these small chips adheres sufficiently to the stick in the form of a white frost, they strain the whole, taking care to throw away the dregs and refuse. This juice is afterwards poured gently into an earthen basin, well varnished, in which it is suffered to remain one night. Next morning it is found coagulated and formed into

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a solid mass. To purify this first preparation, they procure some fine earth, which, when pounded and reduced to a very fine powder, they put into the bottom of a basin made of copper; over this layer of earth they spread a layer of camphor, and continue thus until they have laid four strata. The last, which is of very fine earth, they cover up with the leaves of the penny-royal plant; and over the whole they place another basin, joining it very closely to the former by means of a kind of red earth that cements their brims together. The basin, thus prepared, is put over a fire, which must be managed so as to keep up an equal heat experience teaches them to observe the proper degree. But above all they must be very attentive lest the plaster of earth which keeps the basins together should crack or fall off, as in that case the spirit would evaporate, and the whole process be spoiled. When the basins have been exposed to the necessary heat, they are taken off, and left to cool; after which they are separated, and the sublimated camphor is found adhering to the cover. If this operation be repeated two or three times, the camphor is found purer, and in larger pieces. Whenever it is necessary to use any quantity of this substance, it is put between two earthen vessels, the edges of which are surrounded with several bands of wet paper. These vessels are kept for about an hour over an equal and moderate fire; and when they are cool, the camphor is found in its utmost perfection, and ready for

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The Greeks and the Romans appear to have been unacquainted with this valuable drug, and we are indebted to the Arabians for a knowledge of it. The chemical properties of Camphor are thus described.-" Camphor is a vegetable substance, of an oily nature, combustible, odoriferous, volatile, concrete, and crystalline." Its smell is strong and penetrating; its inflammable nature is so great, that it will burn when floating on the surface of water. A curious rotatory movement takes place among small particles of Camphor when sprinkled on the surface of water; and if a cylindrical piece of Camphor is partly plunged in the liquid, it is dissolved, not equally over the whole immersed portion, but with great rapidity at that part which is on a level with the surface of the water. Camphor is much used in the preservation of subjects of natural history from insects; its powerful odour destroys the more minute species, and deters the larger from approaching, and it is also used in medicine as a sedative.

THE beautiful system of sun, planets, and comets, could have its origin in no other way than by the purpose and command of an intelligent and powerful Being. He governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as the lord of the universe. He is not only God, but Lord or Governor: we know him only by his properties and attributes, by the wise and admirable structure of things around of his perfections, we venerate and worship him on account us, and by their final causes; we admire him on account of his government.-SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

LIVING in an age of extraordinary events and revolutions thus be communicated to posterity; that all is vanity which I have learned from thence this truth, which I desire might is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety.-EVELYN's Epitaph by himself.

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ON WIGS AND HEAD-DRESSES.

No. III.

THE HEAD-DRESSES OF FEMALES. THE arrangement of the hair, and the decoration of the head, have, in all ages, been objects of great attention among females, and the extravagance into which they have been led, in decorating this part of the person, has often been a subject of severe reproof. We meet with many instances of this in the Sacred volume, where the vanities of the Jewish women are particularly alluded to.

The Jews, originally a pastoral people, acquired a taste for this method of ornamenting the person through their intercourse with the Egyptians, and with the Asiatic nations. There are no known Jewish monuments to which we can refer, but we may gather much information on the subject from the remains of Egyptian antiquity, for there is little doubt the fashions of the Jews were mostly borrowed from the people of that nation. We have already given a representation of an ancient Egyptian wig*, but this kind of head-dress was seldom worn without a variety of ornaments being at the same time added; these consisted of fillets of gold, ribands of the brightest colours, flowers, particularly the lotus, of which they were extremely fond; in some cases feathers, together with enormous ear-rings, necklaces, elegantly painted collars, &c.

The first three figures in the engraving are headdresses of Egyptian females. The figure to the left shows the usual mode of wearing a wig, resembling that we have already figured; the only ornament being a narrow fillet round the crown of the head. The central figure is much more gaudily attired, and was probably an assistant at some religious ceremony; in her hand she holds a musical instrument, called a sistrum. The feathers which surmount the head-dress are variegated with green and red, an artificial lotus forms part of the ornament, fixed in a golden support; a golden fillet binds the hair, which is black; the ornament which hangs over the shoulder is of blue and gold, and the collar is elegantly worked or painted. The right-hand figure has her head covered with a cap, of a delicate fabric, and of a bright-blue colour; the rosettes of the fillet are of gold, and the ornament that depends from the top of the head is black; the ornament is in the form of a serpent.

The next nation of antiquity to which we can refer on this subject is the Greeks, and the good taste of the Grecian ladies is eminently conspicuous in the adornment of the head. At first, as appears both from ancient sculpture and paintings, men and women alike wore their hair descending partly before and partly behind, in a number of long separate locks, either of a flat and zig-zagged, or of a round and corkscrew shape. A little later it grew into fashion to collect the whole of the hair hanging down the back, by means of a riband, into a single broad stream, and only to leave in front, one, two, or three long narrow locks hanging down separately; and this is the head-dress which Minerva, a maiden affecting old fashions and formality, never seems to have quitted." Later still the queue depending down the back was taken up, and doubled into a club, and the side-locks only continued to reach in front as low down as the bosom. But these also gradually shrunk away into a greater number of smaller tufts or ringlets, hanging down about the ears, and leaving the neck quite unconfined. So neatly was the hair arranged in

*See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XII., p. 113.

both sexes round the forehead, and in the males round the chin, as sometimes to resemble the cells of a bee-hive, and at others waves and undulations, executed in wirework.

Ladies reckoned among the ornaments of the head the tiara, or crescent-formed diadem, and ribands, rows of beads, wreaths of flowers, nettings, fillets, skewers, and gew-gaws innumerable. Ear-rings of various shapes, necklaces in numerous rows, and various other trinkets, were in great request. The Roman ladies followed, to a certain extent, the fashions of the Greeks, but they seem rarely to have worn the tiara, or the net to support the hair; their mode of dressing the hair was less elegant but more elaborate, being frequently arranged in a vast number of small curls; for this purpose they made use of a hot iron, called calamistrum, and this instrument appears to have been in use among the Grecian as well as the Roman ladies. Tiaras, pins, and other articles for the decoration of the head, have been found among the ruins of Pompeii. The Roman ladies, whose hair is generally black, were extremely fond of light and auburn hair, which was brought to Rome from Germany and the northern parts of Europe. Ovid, and other Latin poets, frequently allude to this practice, and to the employment of a German nostrum to cause the hair to grow,

Say that by age, or some great sickness had,
Thy head with wonted hair be thinly clad;
Falling away like corn from ripened sheaves,
As thick, as Boreas blows down Autumn leaves.
By German herbs thou may'st thy hair restore,
And hide the bare scalp that was bald before.
Women have known this art, and of their crew
Many false colours buy, to hide the true;
And multitudes, yea, more than can be told,
Walk in such hair as they have bought for gold.
Hair is good merchandise, and grown a trade,
Markets and public traffic thereof made
Nor do they blush to cheapen it among

The thickest number, and the rudest throng. The same poet also ventures to give the ladies instruction as to the dressing of their hair.

A long and slender visage best allows
To have the hair part, just above the brows;
So Laodameia, surnamed the fair,
Used, when she walked abroad, to truss her hair.
A round plump face must have her trammels tied
In a fast knot above, her front to hide;
The wire supporting it, whilst either ear,
Bare and in sight, upon each side appear.
Some ladies' locks about their shoulders fall,
And hanging loose, become them best of all.

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THE LIMITED POWER OF MAN. MAN can construct exquisite machines, can call in vast powers, can form extensive combinations, in order to bring about results which he has in view. But in all this he is only taking advantage of laws of nature which already exist; he is applying to his use qualities which matter already possesses. Nor can he by any effort do more. He can establish no new law of nature which is not a result of the existing ones. He can invest matter with no new properties which are not modifications of its present attributes. His greatest advances in skill and power are made unemployed, or when he discovers so much of the when he calls to his aid forces which before existed habits of some of the elements as to be able to bend them to his purpose. He navigates the ocean by the assistance of the winds, which he cannot raise or

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and even if we suppose him able to control the | the moon, without any other feeling than the comfort force of these, his yet unsubjugated ministers, this of a safe and easy navigation; and the varieties of could only be done by studying their characters, by hill and dale, of shady woods and luxuriant verdure, learning more thoroughly the laws of air, and heat, might have been pleasant only in the eyes of farmers and moisture. He cannot give the minutest portion and graziers. We could, too, have listened to sounds of the atmosphere new relations, a new course of ex- with equal indifference to everything beyond the mere pansion, new laws of motion. But the Divine opera- information they conveyed to us; and the sighing of tions, on the other hand, include something much the breeze, or the murmuring of the ocean, while we higher. They take in the establishment of the laws learned nothing from them of which we could avail of the elements, as well as the combinations of these ourselves, might have been heard without pleasure. laws, and the determination of the distribution and It is evident that the perception of external things, quantity of the materials on which they shall produce for the mere purpose of making use of them, has no their effect. We must conceive that the Supreme connexion with the feeling of their beauty; and that Power has ordained that air shall be rarefied, and our Creator, therefore, has bestowed on us this addiwater turned into vapour by heat; no less than that tional feeling, for the purpose of augmenting our haphe has combined air and water, so as to sprinkle the piness. Had he not had this design, he might have earth with showers, and determined the quantity of left us without the sense of beauty or deformity. heat, and air, and water, so that the showers shall be "If God," says Paley, "had wished our misery, He as beneficial as they are. might have made sure of his purpose, by forming our senses to be as many sores and pains to us, as they are now instruments of our gratification and enjoyment; or by placing us among objects so illsuited to our perceptions, as to have continually offended us, instead of ministering to our refreshment and delight. He might have made, for instance, everything we saw loathsome, everything we touched a sting, and every sound a discord."

We may and must, therefore, in our conceptions of the Divine purpose and agency, go beyond the analogy of human contrivances. We must conceive the Deity, not only as constructing the most refined and vast machinery with which the universe is filled; but we must also imagine him as establishing those properties by which such machinery is possible: as giving to the materials of his structure the qualities by which the material is fitted to its use. There is much to be found, in natural objects, of the same kind of contrivance which is common to these and to human inventions: there are mechanical devices, operations of the atmospheric elements, chemical processes. Many such have been pointed out; many more exist. But besides these cases of the combination of means, which we seem able to understand without much difficulty, we are led to consider the Divine Being as the author of the laws of chemical, of physical, and of mechanical action, and of such other laws as make matter what it is; and this is a view which no analogy of human inventions, no knowledge of human powers, at all assists us to embody or understand. Science, therefore, while it discloses to us the mode of instrumentality employed by the Deity, convinces us, more effectually than ever, of the impossibility of conceiving God's actions by assimilating them to our own.--WHEWELL.

MUSIC

MUSIC, though now a very complex and difficult art, is, in truth, a gift of the Author of Nature to the whole human race. Its existence and influence are to be traced in the records of every people from the earliest ages, and are perceptible, at the present time, in every quarter of the globe. It is a part of the benevolent order of Providence, that we are capable of receiving from the objects around us, pleasures independent of the immediate purposes for which they have been created. Our eyes do not merely enable us to see external things, so as to avail ourselves of their useful properties; they enable us also to enjoy the delight produced by the sensation of beauty, a perception which (upon whatever principle it may be explained), is something distinct from any consideration of the mere utility of an object. We could have had the most accurate perceptions of the form and position of everything that constitutes the most beautiful landscape, without receiving any idea of its beauty. We could have beheld the sun setting amid the glowing tints of a summer evening, without thinking of anything beyond the advantage of serene Weather; we might have contemplated the glossy expanse of the ocean, reflecting the tranquil beams of

In place of every sound being a discord, the greatest part of the sounds which we hear are more or less agreeable to us. The infinite variety of sounds produced by the wind and waters, the cries of animals, the notes of birds, and above all, the tones of the human voice, all affect us with various kinds and degrees of pleasure; and, in general, it may be said, that it is such sounds as indicate something to be feared and avoided, such as the howling of wild beasts, or the hissing of serpents, that are positively painful to our ears. In this sense all nature may be said to be full of music, the disagreeable and discordant sounds being (as in artificial music), in such proportion only as to heighten the pleasure derived from those which are agreeable. The human voice is that which pleases us chiefly, and affects us most powerfully. Its natural tones and accents are calculated to penetrate the heart of the listener, and the union of these to articulate speech, in every language, not only produces a melody which pleases the ear, but an effect on the feelings, of which the mere words would be incapable. These natural tones of the voice, either by themselves, or joined to articulate language, constitute music in its simplest state; and the pleasures and feelings derived from such music must necessarily have existed in every form of society. HOGARTH'S Musical History.

THE USEFUL ARTS. No. XXXVI.

THE CARPENTER. 2.

WHEN a timber-tree is cut down, the branches, arms, and boughs, are cut off and the bark stripped, this being valuable for many purposes. The trunk is then sawed square, and again cut into planks, deals, battens, &c., as the different sized boards into which it is reduced are called. logs, distinguished from the long beams known technically Teak and mahogany is imported into this country in as timber, by their width and thickness, being considerable, in proportion to their length.

Timber is sawed in countries producing, or using it, in great quantities in saw mills, in which the tools are worked by water or steam. From four to six long saws are set parallel to each other in a frame, and at the distance apart of the thickness of the planks into which the timber is to be cut. These frames of saws are moved vertically up and down by the machinery, the timber lying horizontally on a frame-work, and being pushed gradually along by the ma

chinery, to keep the saws in action as they cut through it, the saws always remaining in one place.

Wood is also sawed into battens, laths, &c., by circular saws, turned by machinery, like a lathe.

When timber is sawed by hand, it is done by two men acting in concert in the following manner. A pit is generally chosen, round the margin of which a stout frame is laid. The beam to be sawed is laid lengthwise to the pit on this frame, in the centre, and one man stands on the beam while another is in the pit below him, each alternately raising or pulling down a large vertical saw, with which they saw the beam lengthwise into planks. Wedges of wood are placed by them in the fissure as they proceed, to keep the cut open, and thus allow the saw to play freely. This is excessively hard labour, especially to the upper man, who has not only to raise the weight of the saw in the up-stroke, but to guide it correctly along the chalked line on the beam. This man gets higher wages, and is called the Top-sawyer, a term technically given in jest to any one who is, or fancies himself, of importance.

When timber is wanted in lengths exceeding those that can be procured from the tree in one piece, it must be joined by what is called scarfing; that is, the ends of the two lengths that are to be united into one, are cut so that a portion of the one may lap over and fit into a portion of the other which is cut so as to receive it, the timber, when united, being of the same uniform size. The joined ends are secured together by bolts or spikes. The annexed are figures of the more usual modes of scarfing timber for different purposes.

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This mode of strengthening a beam by trussing, is only adopted in floors, where it is necessary to limit the depth of the truss to that of the beam, to obtain a level surface by means of joists laid across, and supported by, the beam. But it is obvious that much greater strength may be imparted to a long beam by making it the base of a triangular frame, as is done in roofs, in various manners, when the slanting sides of the triangular frame carry the battens or laths for supporting the tiles or other covering.

The annexed is the simplest form of a roof, and will help to explain the subject of carpentry in other respects. The beam A, called the Tie-beam, is of such a length as to rest on the side walls of the house at each of its ends, and is supposed to be of such dimensions in depth and thickness as would render it inadequate to support much more than its own weight. The two sloping rafters BB, are called Principals; they are mortised into the tie-beam at their ends by a joint, shown in the annexed figure, by which they are provided with a firm abutment to prevent the ends from slipping outwards, and in order to prevent the principal from starting upwards out of the mortise, it is strapped down to the tie-beam by an iron strap, bolted or screwed to both timbers.

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The last is a mode of scarfing invented by Mr. Roberts, of the Royal Dock Yards.

When a beam of timber is long in proportion to its breadth and thickness, it will bend by its own and will be incapable of supporting much additional weight; it may be strengthened by trussing, in different modes, of which we will only describe that usually adopted for girders, intended for floors. The beam is sawed longitudinally into two equal beams, each, of course, half the thickness of the original, these halves are reversed, end for end, so that if there were any weak part in the original beam, this may be divided equally between the ends of the compound beam made up of the two halves when bolted together. A flat truss, usually of oak, with iron king-bolts and abutting plates, resembling in form and principle, a timber roof or bridge, is placed between the two half beams, and let into a shallow groove cut in each half to receive it; the compound beam, with this truss in the middle, is then bolted together again by means of iron bolts with washers and nuts, and consequently becomes rigid by the construction of the truss. The truss is not entirely let into the double beam, as the full effect of strength may be obtained without the necessity for cutting the groove in each half beam, of half the thickness of the oak truss; consequently, when

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P is termed a King-post, and is cut out with a head and foot, the former to receive the upper ends of the principals, which, being cut square, abut firmly against the sloping face of the head. The sloping principals hold up the kingpost, and the tie-beam is supported from the latter by a stirrup-shaped strap, that goes under the beam and is bolted, or screwed, to the post on each side. To prevent the principals from bending by the strain, or by the weight of the roof-covering, the struts c c, are placed, abutting against the beveled part of the foot of the king-post, and are strapped to the principals, or mortised into them.

The number of tie-beams with their trusses, &ce, of course depends on the length of the roof, or the material with which it is to be covered. A longitudinal scantling, or thin beam, called a purline, E, is laid lengthwise, resting on the principals over the ends of the struts, and is secured to the former by a spike, or else by being notched down on to the principal. These purlines support the common rafters R, which abut at their feet against a longitudinal scantling s, lying on, and halved down on, the tie-beams; at their upper ends, the rafters R rest against a ridge-piece, or thin plank, let edgeways into the head of the king-post. The rafters are placed about a foot apart, and on to them are nailed the laths or battens to carry the tiles or slates.

In constructing roofs, floors, and other structures of timber, the various beams are framed, or fastened together by certain processes calculated to insure strength and per

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