MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 19 



with English, French and German descriptions. Hough's 

 collection is just as useful as Burkart's, for although his 

 species are all American, the law already referred to holds 

 good, that there is no difference in the anatomy or structure 

 of American, Japanese, or European oakwood, no difference 

 in spruce wood from these countries ; also that the collection 

 includes not only typical woods of all European species, hut 

 of many important American ones as well, such as mahogany, 

 hickory, &c. For the same reason, Japanese wood-collections 

 are serviceable also for European study, for the Japanese 

 possess all our genera of trees and many others besides, and 

 have also studied the structure of woods. 



In the following description of the structural data of the 

 more important indigenous and foreign wood-species, the 

 systematic arrangement followed by iSordlinger is rejected. 

 European wood-species with the most striking structure come 

 lirst, then those which have no clear characteristics, after which 

 follow a few of the more important exotic woods. The plates, all 

 original, show the three sections, natural-sized, of each wood. 

 AVhen the characters appear indistinct in the plates, they are 

 so naturally, unless the section is magnilied. The use of the 

 magnifying-glass would have lightened the work of drawing 

 the plates, but certainly would have diminished their utility. 



[The transverse section of the pith is stellate in the oak, pen- 

 tagonal in poplar, quadrangular in ash, triangular in alder, 

 and the pith is segmented in walnuts and bamboos. Tr.] 



(A) Broadleaved Woods. 



1. Species of Oak (Qaerciis). 

 (Including all deciduous oaks of Europe, America and Asia.) 



Transverse Section. Thick medullary rays alternating with 

 liner ones, they gleam in the dull surrounding tissues. In 

 the spring- wood is a circle of wide vessels (pores), usually 

 two along a radius ; the vessels rapidly decrease in width 

 towards the summer-wood and are arranged in radial rows. 

 In the summer- wood they often bifurcate, and are visible 

 because they are surrounded by a lustrous, pale circle of 

 parenchyniatous cells. JJetwetn these bright radial lines of 



