SPANISH OAK 



Bark. ? 



Uses, etc. Shuttle-making, turnery. A wood of great solidity 

 and pretty figure in every section. A tree growing to a height of 

 50 ft. with a diameter of 24 inches (49). " Generally hollow and 

 defective when large : checks badly in drying . . . little value 

 except for fuel " (100). (This does not apply to the sap-wood.) 

 Usually met with in England in the form of shuttle blocks. 



Authorities. Sargent (100), No. 263. Kew Museum, Xo. i. 



Colour. White : whitish-brown to brown striped with dark 

 lines. " Very dark brown, almost black, . . . thick sap-wood " 

 (100). See note. 



Anatomical Characters. Transverse section : 



Pores. Need lens, size 2 : diminish gradually and regularly to 

 the Autumn boundary : usually one large isolated pore com- 

 mencing the tree-like radial group : never crowded : no con- 

 tinuous pore-ring : few, 4-13 per mm. : no abrupt separation 

 between large and small pores. 



Rays. Conspicuous, two sizes (not compound). The larger 

 size, broad, size 2 : rarely less than I mm. apart : dilating at the 

 ring-boundaries : very long : tapering both ends : tissue lax : 

 light brown. Small rays very fine, size 7 : numerous, 16-24 per 

 mm.: avoid the pores : need lens. 



Rings. Inconspicuous : the boundary a line of contrast 

 between the lax, large-pored spring wood and the dense, small- 

 pored Autumn wood : contour undulating, coarsely crenate 

 (convex outwards). 



Soft-tissue. Abundant in broad radial patches or strips en- 

 closing the whole pore system : also fine, continuous waved lines 

 in the late Autumn wood, faintly visible in the solid only ; and in 

 well developed rings : follows their contour. 



Pith. ? 



Radial Section. Pores need lens : a few fine, shining, colour- 

 less lines. Rays bold, dull flakes : when brown darker than the 

 ground. Rings not traceable. Soft-tissue just visible as hoary 

 stripes or lines. 



Tangential Section. As the Radial, but very different in appear- 

 ance, the rays appearing a bold, conspicuous, spindle-shaped 

 stripes, much darker than the ground, especially when brown : 

 about 2 inches high by 0*5 mm. broad. 



Type specimens from commercial sources checked by specimens 

 in Museum No. i, Kew. The apparent discrepancy between this 

 description and that of Sargent (100) may be explained upon the 

 assumption that the wood imported into this country is second- 

 growth wood or perhaps sap-wood of large trees. On the 

 hand this species has much resemblance to Hough's section of Q. 

 virens (49), pt. v. p. 43. 



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