142 



TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. 



[chap. 



top. The wood of the Spanish Oak is of a dark brown 

 colour, plain and even in its grain, porous, softer than 

 most other Oaks, and liable to excessive shrinkage in 

 seasoning. 



Table XXXVI.— Dutch or Rhenish Oak. 

 Transverse Experiments. 



Remarks. — Each piece broke with a moderate length of fracture. 



The star-shake defect is common to it, and, taken 

 altogether, it is of very inferior quality. The Spanish 

 Oak did not meet with approval in either the royal or 

 private ship-building yards, and consequently the ship- 

 ments of it to this country have decHned for some time 

 past. It is remarkable that this Oak is of very slow 

 growth {^ide Table I., p. 44) ; and perhaps this in some 

 measure accounts for its inferior quality, the explana- 

 tion being that the trees of this species which form and 

 mature their wood most rapidly are generally the best 

 of their kind, because when the summer and autumn 

 zones are broad the whole annual ring is denser and 

 more solid, since it contains more fibres, etc., and fewer 

 and smaller vessels — i.e., it is less spongy in texture. 



