TIMBEE or THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 99 
alba) which is generally known as American oak, but 
timber from many of the other species is doubtless exported 
under the same name. The white oak, which is found 
from Canada to California and Florida, is a tree of 60 to 
80 ft. high and 4 ft. diameter ; a good deal comes from 
Quebec, which grows in the Lake States, and this northern 
oak is of a better quality than that which comes from 
further south. The wood is much the same colour as 
European oak, being pale reddish brown, with coarse grain ; 
it is sound, hard, and tough, very elastic, does not shrink 
much, and can be bent to any form when steamed ; annual 
rings are distinct, medullary rays very broad and con- 
spicuous, and the pores are very fine and numerous, 
especially in the summer wood. It is the strongest of 
American oaks, not so strong, compact, or durable as 
English or Dantzic oak, but it has the advantage of greater 
length and square. It is used in shipbuilding, and in parts 
of buildings where formerly English oak was used, also in 
wagon building, and largely in the furniture and cabinet 
trades. In the past it has been much used for sleepers on 
the United States railways. Several oaks go by the name 
of white oak with different botanical names in different 
districts. Western white oak {Q. garryana) grows in 
Vancouver district, and the wood is very like that of 
English oak. 
Red Oak {Q. rubra) is found over the same regions as 
the white oak, and is more plentiful ; it produces a browny 
coloured wood, spongy in grain, moderately durable, but 
unfit for work requiring strength. It is used for furniture 
and cask staves, is inferior in quality to the white oak, 
but almost as hard and heavy. 
Live Oak {Q. vircns) grows from Maryland to the Gulf of 
Mexico and attains a height of 60 ft. and 4 ft. diameter ; the 
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