It is necessary that the wood selected (if not to be painted) should be well grown, and from a fully developed tree, where all the fibres or grain are distinctly marked. The beauty of the wood, when properly treated, consists in the brilliant manner in which the rich, deep yellow streaks or layers of the hard wood are developed under the hands of the skilful polisher. These yellow veins show through the polish like clear and beautifully marked streaks of amber; and strongly reflecting the light, they produce a very pleasing effect. The yellow, variegated, hard part of the wood forms a very excellent contrast to the delicate whiteness of the softer parts of the board; and, if skilfully selected, the effect will be much admired, and certainly preferred to the best imitation of the more rare and expensive woods. In arranging doors, panels, &c., much will, of course, depend in selecting the wood, in placing the best parts in the panels, so that when polished the most pleasing effects will be produced. Much, too, depends on skilful workmanship and smooth finish, which can only be obtained by care, and using well-seasoned wood; but this is the case with all species of wood. Should any young architect, after reading the preceding remarks, be desirous of employing natural woods in his building works, we advise him, before he attempts this kind of colour decoration, to study Mr. Owen Jones’ lecture on “Colour in the Decorative Arts,” delivered before the Society of Arts, 1852; and likewise M. Chevreul’s ‘Laws of the Simultaneous Contrast of Colours’; we also recommend him to-- Use _moderate_ things elegantly, and _elegant_ things moderately. Oak, walnut, maple, elm, and some other woods become of very dark colour, but can be made to receive a fine polish, and could often be employed for panels with good effect. In some cases there is great contrast of tint in the same log after preparation, so that these might be inapplicable except in smaller pieces, or perhaps by applying the process after the work has been made; but sycamore, beech, and some other woods are generally uniform, except as regards the previous grain of the wood. As to the matter of showing the end of the grain, according to the Gothic principle the beauty of a wood consists in showing the end of the grain; but, at the same time, the classic principle is that there is a greater beauty in the side way of the grain than in the end way. Although varnish and polish both form a glazing, and give a lustre to the wood they cover, as well as heighten the colours of the wood, yet from their want of consistence they are liable to yield to any shrinking or swelling, rising in scales or cracking, when much knocked about. Waxing, on the contrary, resists percussion, but it does not possess in the same degree as varnish the property of giving lustre to the bodies on which it is applied; any accidents, however, to its polish are easily repaired by rubbing.