Friday, May 2, 2008

A Famous Library

1895

Its Hundreds of Unique Volumes Are Made Entirely of Wood.

In a retired street of Cassel stands an old fashioned, roomy house, the depository of the Natural History museum of Hesse. The most unique and interesting of the various collections is the so called "Holzbibliothek," or library of wood, consisting of 546 volumes in folio, octavo and duodecimo, made from trees growing in Wilhelmshire park and representing 120 genera and 441 species.

On the back of each volume is a rod morocco shield bearing the common and scientific name of the tree and the class and species to which it belongs according to Linnaeus, specimens of the moss and lichen peculiar to it, a bit of the rind or bark, and if it is resinous a drop or two of the rosin. The upper edge shows the young wood cut crosswise to exhibit the rings and pith, while the under edge is of old wood cut in the same manner to illustrate the changes which take place in the texture as the tree gains in age and size.

The top cover is of unripe wood in the rough; the front edge shows the polished grain and also the fungi to which the tree is liable when in the stages of decay or disease. Attached to the front edge is a cubic inch of mature wood, on which is noted its specific weight when the sap is flowing in the early spring, again in midsummer and still again when thoroughly dry. Under this is given the degree of heat obtainable from a cubic inch of dry wood in a cubic foot of space, that given out by the same quantity when it becomes a glowing coal, its diminished size and weight when charred, and the properties of the tree, together with a description of the soil in which it flourishes best.

The interior of the book or box contains a complete history of the tree, especially of the organs of nourishment and fructification. There are capsules, with seeds; the germ bud, with rootless and first leaves; a branch, with leaves in various stages of development; the flower from the tiny bud to the perfect blossom; the fruit from the embryo to its full maturity, and last of all a skeletonized leaf. — New York Journal.

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