HORSE CHESTNUT G.N. 1491 



HORSE CHESTNUT 



&sculus Hippocastanum Linn. Hippocastanaceae. 



A diffuse-porous wood of a white colour sometimes with a slight yellow 

 tinge, very fine grain and light in weight. 



Transverse section. Colour, creamy white when cleanly cut. Bound- 

 aries, some fine lines and sometimes a single ring of vessels, which are a 

 little larger than those of the later wood. Parenchyma invisible with 

 lens, dispersed throughout the fibres. Vessels the smallest on record, just 

 visible with a good lens, evenly distributed. Rays exceedingly fine (lens). 



Radial section. Boundaries traceable, but faint: vessels scarcely 

 perceptible; rays just visible in certain lights and slightly darker than 

 the ground. Five to eight round pits in the cross-fields of the edge cells 

 which are prostrate: vessels sometimes spirally thickened but very 

 difficult to find 1 . 



Tangential section. As the radial, but the boundaries are clearer in 

 the form of loops sometimes minutely fringed: rays scarcely if at all 

 visible even with lens. 



May be confused with: May be distinguished by: 



Willow 1 , when light-coloured Vessels in longitudinal section 



(vessels in longitudinal section scarcely perceptible: a one-rowed 



visible though small). pore-ring frequently present. 



Poplar 1 [medium coarse grain: Vessels in longitudinal section 

 medium weight (but in P. nigra no scarcely perceptible: fine grain 

 certain character available). Colour light weight: a fine pore-ring fre- 

 of transverse section when clear quently present. Transverse sec- 

 cut, silvery grey]. tion when clean cut, creamy white. 



Lime and Birch (both multi- Uniseriate rays: light in weight, 

 seriate rays: medium weight). 



Tulip-tree (rays multiseriate, Rays obscure in transverse sec- 

 very clear). tion, uniseriate. 



Sycamore (rays multiseriate, Obscure rays (lens), 

 bright and prominent). 



1 See note to Willow on microscopic details. 



