For carpentry and joiner's work, _cedar_ was the wood most in demand. _Pine_ of different kinds was used for doors, panels, carriage building, and all work requiring to be joined up with glue, of which that wood is particularly retentive. _Elm_ was employed for the framework of doors, lintels and sills, in which sockets were formed for the pins or hinges on which the doors turned. The hinge jambs were occasionally made of _olive_. _Ash_ was employed for many purposes; that grown in Gaul was used in the construction of carriages on account of its extreme suppleness and pliancy. Axles and portions which were much morticed together were made of _Ilex_ (_Holm oak_). _Beech_ also was in frequent use. _Acer_ (_Maple_) was much prized, as has been already stated, for tables, on account of the beauty of the wood and of the finish which it admits. _Osiers_ were in use for chairs as in our own times. _Veneering_ was universal in wood furniture of a costly kind. The slices of wood were laid down with glue as in modern work, and they used tarsia or picture work of all kinds. _Figwood_, _willow_, _plane_, _elm_, _ash_, _mulberry_, _cherry_, _cork wood_, were amongst the materials for the bed or substance on which to lay such work. Wild and cultivated _olive_, _box_, _ebony_ (Corsican especially), _ilex_, _beech_, were adapted for veneering boxes, desks, and small work. Besides these, the Romans used the Syrian _terebinth_, _maple_, _palm_ (cut across), _holly_, _root of elder_, _poplar_; horn, ivory plain and stained; tortoiseshell; and wood grained in imitation of various woods for veneering couches and other large pieces of furniture, as well as door frames, &c., so that this imitation of grains is not entirely a modern invention. Woods were soaked in water or buried under heaps of grain to season them; or steeped in oil of cedar to keep off the worms. The _cedars_ of Crete, Africa, and Syria were the best of that class of timber. The best _fir_ timber was obtained from the Jura range, from Corsica, Bithynia, Pontus, and Macedonia. The Romans had admirable glue, and used planes, chisels, &c. Their saws, set in frames, had the teeth turned in opposite directions to open the seam in working. There are some curious historical records of the endurance of particular wood structures. The cedar roof of the temple of Diana of Ephesus was intact at the end of four centuries in Pliny's time. Her statue was black, supposed to be of ebony, but according to other authorities of vine, and had outlasted various rebuildings of the temple. The roof beams of the temple of Apollo at Utica were of cedar and had been laid 348 years before the foundation of Rome; nearly 1,200 years old in the time of Pliny, and still sound.