SCENTS OF TIMBER.

Shannon News, 7 December 1923, Page 4

SCENTS OF TIMBER.

SOME PECULIAR SPECIES.

CINNAMON AND DECDAR. 1 ■ ' “Of all the smells, in the world,” Viscount Grey once declared in the * course of an address on Nature. study, 1 “ the smell of many trees is the sweetest and most fortifying.” Yet only a small proportion of those who delight in the perfume of flower beds ever realise how much fragrance may be inhaled when sauntering through a .wood. Trees—especially under a hot sun following rain-—send out an odour both pleasant and tonic. But it is a subtle odour; and, just as the squeak of a bat, the stimulating scent of a clump of trees is ignored by ordinary, noses.

Every kind of wood emits its own characteristic odour, though in some species this is so faint as to he almost imperceptible, states E. V. Beckley in the Times trade supplement. Occasionally, during a country ramble the, writer has watched a couple of woodmen felling an oak with the simple tackle of their craft —bill hooks, . axes, a crosscut saw, two or three small iron wedges. After the oak has measured its length on the grass with majestic crackling roar, the bark ing-iron comes into play, and an acid smell pervades the air. “ The more it smells like vinegar, the sounder the oak,” a woodman once told the writer. The resinous smell —apparent even to the most unobservant noses—exhaled by pines and other conifers in growth lingers for ■ a long time after the timber has been seasoned. The . peculiarly inspired and odd suggestion on the part of a seventeenth century writer quoted in John Evelyn’s “ Sylva,” “ Thomas Bartolinus,” says Evelyn, b disclaims the use of hops in beer, and would substitute the shavings of dead boards as .he says, to give a grateful odour to the drink.” Coach builders who made a large use of acacia wood find that some species smell of violets when worked. The aroma of cherry wood is intensified after it has been buried for a time; and this is done in the, parts of France and Germany where they make cherry wood pipes. AFTER. ' THOUSANDS OF YEARS. ' Most of the strong scented woods —such as cinnamon, deodar, Camphor wood, sandalwood—are produced only in hot countries. Their scent vanishes in course of time but only, from the surface. A slight incision made in a sandalwood box however old will reviye its perfume. A piece of juniper found in an Egyptian couch'of the Twelfth Dynasty regained its sweet smell when cut. There are a few forms of timber fortunately very few —which smell repulsively. By far the worst of these is the goupy, a tree that abounds in Guiana. Its wood is- hard and has been tried for road paving in the hope that applications of tar, and long exposure to the air would neutralise the smell of decayed cheese it gives forth Such however was not the case, aatl the. goupy paying had to be removed. The timber of cypress trees grown in this country' has little commercial value; but Queensland produces a cypress pine with a very strong scent which makes it serviceable for bridge piles and other under-water structures Though rather pleasing to human noses, this scent is evidently disagreeable —probably poisonous—-to insect life both on land and water. Even the white ant will not touch it. It has on the outer; surface a skin of sapwood, about lialf an inch thick, which, being. odourless, affords no protection. After a few months the sapwood vanishes from bridge piles, haying beefi devoured by cobras or other pests—but they always slop short heartwood. . SNEEZEWOOD AND STINKWOOD. One of the hardest and most durable woods known to commerce — sneezewood —grows only in South Africa. Sneezewood (Peteroxllon utile) derives its name from the fact that when being worked its dust gives oiit a pungent odour apt to cause sneezing and running of the eyes, and as repulsive to insect pests as the odour of the Queensland cypress. Another strong smelling South African timber is Cape walnut commonly .called stinkwood, and largely used for making furniture because its smell k?eps insects at bay. 'The Japanese, who have developed the sense of smell to a far higher point than any Western nation, used to play a game known as Ko-awase (a game of scents), fragrant’ woods and incense being the only scents permitted. Descriptions of Ko-awase preserved in old MSS. indicate that an astonishing variety of fragrant woods must have been known in Feudal Japan. It was played By four persons, to one of whom was assigned the task of burning wood and incense on a mica plate held over a charcoal brazier. A cabinet, placed in such a 'position that the other players could not see what he was taking, held its supplies, and he was furnished with a set of minature tools —saw, chisel knife, hammer —for cutting up the wood By his side stood a lacquer tray with a number of mother-of-pearl medallious. When the wood and incense were thoroughly ignited the mica plate containing them was placed to cool upon one of the medallions. The other players inhaled the scent from the fuming plate; endeavoured to decide, within a time-limit o f two minutes, what wood had been mingled with the incense to produce the: fumes; then signified their decision by means of a numbered counter. No fewer than 120 combinations of scent are recognised in the'rules of Ko-awase.