SIZE OF WOOD-CELLS. 



143 



an average appears to be estalilished. Tliis fact is illustrated 

 by tlie following table, based on nieasurenieiits of tracheids of 

 Pinus sjlvestris.-' 



From this table it is seen that the increase can be ti'aced up to 

 the fortj'-flfth 3'eav, but that from that time on, the tracheids in 

 one ring have the same length as those in the next. Those in 

 the forty-fifth annual ring have an average length of about five 

 tiiBes that of those in the first. In the wood of oak, the libri- 

 form cells exhibited the greatest difference in length. Thus 

 Sanio found that in a stem of Qnercus pedunculata, with 130 

 rings, the medium length of these elements in the ring of the 

 first j-ear was .42 mm., and in the three outer rings 1.22 mm. 

 Ti'acheids in the same rings measured, however, only .39 mm. 

 and .72 mm. respectivelj*. With this inci'ement in the length of 

 wood eleixients in successive rings, Haberlandt associates a fact 

 noticed b}' Alexander Braun ; '^ namely, that the wood elements 

 in some stems and branches stand not parallel with the axis, but 



1 Ueber die Grosse der Holzzellen bei der gemeinen Kiefer, Prings. Jahrb., 

 viii. 409. 



2 Ueber den schiefen Verlauf der Holzfaser, und die dadurch bedingte 

 Drehung der Banme, Berlin, 1854. 



It is proper to refer at this point to an instrnctive paper by Abromeit 

 upon the hisitology of the oaks, in which the mo.st marked characters of tlie 

 Noi-th American .species are fully treated (Pringsheim's Jahrb., 1884, p. 209). 

 According to Abromeit, the oaks can be plainly classified as follows : — 

 I. With wide well-marked medullary rays. 

 A. The annual rings distinctly defined by the concentric circles of the 

 larger ducts of the .spring wood, and seen by the naked eye. The 

 smaller ducts are arranged in radial rows in the autumn wood. 

 (I,. With thin-walled ducts. 



u. The radial rows of small ducts touch each other tangentially : 

 Quercus lyrata, alba, Durandii, stellata, maorocarpa, Wislizeni 

 Prinus, Garryana, bicolor (var. Micbauxii). 



