CRAIB—REGIONAL SPREAD OF MOISTURE IN WooD OF TREES. 9 
As already stated, the fifth tree was felled towards the end 
of March. On a cut branch placed in water several buds were 
open on the third day after felling. 
Summary of results from the March tree :— 
1. That the central region is practically throughout the most 
deficient in moisture. 
2. That the moisture percentage of the centre increases 
upwards. 
3. That the outer two years’ wood is comparatively dry, and 
4. That the maximum moisture region is now most markedly 
on the outside, just inside the two-year-old wood. 
The facts which I have stated seem to justify the following 
statements :— 
With the decrease or certainly with the cessation of foliar 
activity for the season the tree immediately commences its 
preparations for the next season. The first phase of its activities 
is the storing up in the centre of the trunk of a large supply 
of moisture. This storage commences at the bottom of the 
trunk. Until a full explanation of the process or processes is 
available, it will be more convenient to designate this the storage 
condition. By the time that the centre has received its quota 
of stored moisture far up the trunk, another movement has 
begun causing a rearrangement of the moisture at the base of 
the trunk. I do not say that the two movements are absolutely 
independent. One may be governed by the other, but for 
lack of understanding of the processes involved, I find it more 
convenient for the present to speak of them as distinct. 
With this proviso, and as I interpret the phenomena, the 
processes may be in brief general terms stated thus :— 
As the result of the water moving inwards from the outer 
zones, beginning at the base of the trunk there is created 
an area of maximum moisture content in a transverse plane 
at the centre of the trunk. This inward current and the con- 
sequent plane of maximum moisture content at the centre 
gradually extends upwards in the trunk to the topmost region, 
but before this is reached and the centre of the trunk at the 
top of the bole has become a storage region of maximum 
moisture content a radial movement has begun at the bottom 
of the trunk which likewise progresses upwards, and through 
it the region of maximum moisture content passes almost to 
the outside of the trunk, leaving the centre as the dryest region. 
The movements upwards and radial, both inwards and outwards, 
trunk. 
One point which may not be without its practical bearing 
