A NEGLECTED Woon.
Both South Kensington and Tottenham Court Road (in the person of Shoolbred's) have been exhibiting Empire woods ; and interesting though the exhibits were, whether to house furnishers or foresters, the omissions are more remark- able than the examples. In the past, oak, walnut, and mahogany (though perhaps these remain the best timbers) have had an unwarranted pre-eminence. This is strange, because many other woods, never seen in the form of furniture, are hardly less good, and offer almost unlimited supplies. The omission that most surprises me is Jarrah. I possess a bowl of Jarrah wood (the gift of the Western Australia Government) which seems to me to possess the aesthetic virtues of both wood and porcelain. It has pattern suggesting the striped mottling of a snake and colour a tawny red that rivals porphyry. The wood takes such a polish that it looks on occasion almost as if it were encased in•glass. Now Jarrah is a common wood, so common that it has been used freely for such base purposes as wood pavement. The one English wood with which it may be compared in colour is yew. Jarrah, of course, is not the only fine wood in the south-west corner of Australia, where the trees in a forest of Karri will average 100 feet in height ; but not one of them, so far as I know, is freely used for furniture.
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