TIMBEE OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 117 
80 ft. and about 12 inches diameter. The heartwood is a 
red or pinkish colour, the sapwood, which is considerable, 
is a creamy white ; the wood has a dull surface and very 
fine grain. It is valuable for turnery, tool handles, and 
mallets, and being so free from silex, watchmakers use 
small splinters of it for cleaning out the pivot holes of 
watches, and opticians for removing dust from deepseated 
lenses. It is also used for butchers' skewers, and shuttle 
blocks, and is suitable for turnery and inlaying. The West 
Indian dogwood is quite a different tree. 
The Hardy Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) is a tree which the 
Americans commenced planting about 25 years ago as a 
commercial speculation in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. 
Its native habitat was along the rivers Ohio and Lower 
Wabash, and a century ago it gained a reputation for rapid 
growth and durability, but did not grow in large quantities. 
As a railway tie experiments have left no doubt as to its 
resistance to decay ; it stands abrasion as well as the white 
oak and is superior to it in longevity. Catalpa is a tree 
singularly free from destructive diseases. "Wood after 
being cut from the living tree is one of the most durable 
timbers known. In spite of its light porous structure it 
resists the weathering influences and the attacks of wood 
destroying fungi to a remarkable degree ... no fungus has 
yet been found which will grow in the dead timber ... for 
fence posts this wood has no equal . . . will serve as tele- 
graph poles, lasting longer than almost any class of timber " 
{United States Bureau of Forestrii Bulletin, No. 37). The 
wood is rather soft and coarse in texture, the tree is of slow 
{growth, and the brown coloured heartwood even of very 
;young trees forms nearly three-quarters of their volume. 
'There is only about ^ inch of sap in a 9-inch tree. 
Annual rings are distinctly marked. 
