14 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [CHAP. 
tapering or conical form (Fig. 6), and elongating them- 
selves year by year, so that a large proportion of those 
visible at the butt are traceable at the upper part of the 
stem. A given diameter of wood consequently contains 
many more layers at the top than at the butt end of 
the tree. 
The following table is given to show the number of 
concentric rings counted in the butt and top ends of 
four very fine English Elm trees :— 
TABLE I. 
% ro Butt-end. Top-end. oe ut | No. of layers to 
4 ae wo} eg one inch, 
No} 2] = 5 eel o> 
3 | 62 | piam. |Ammual] piam. | Annual] oo] 8 § 
s layers. layers. 2 2 5 Butt. | Top. 
Feet.) Cub. ft.| Inches.| No. |Inches.| No. Cub. ft. 
I |} 44] 158 36 89 18 56 | 63 | 1°78 | 2°47 | 3°10 
2/41 | 233 30 80 18 74 | 92 | 2°90 | 2°20 | a'to 
3 | 351 170 36 60 18 62 | 94 | 2°57 | 1°83 | 3°42 
4*| 49] 355 | 48 | 97 | 18 | 85 | 88 | 3°66 | 2:02 | 4°70 
From the examples here given, we find that about 
84 per cent. of the layers seen at the butt were trace- 
able at the part where the tree was topped off. We also 
see by the number of layers in one inch of wood at the 
top, as compared with the butt end, the approximate 
taper of the cones just referred to. 
It is very generally admitted that, in latitudes having 
the seasons clearly defined as they are in this country, 
each circle of lignine is completed in one year, but 
opinions differ as to this being the case in tropical 
climates, and there are botanists who consider that as 
* This tree, when cut at 25 feet from the butt, was found to have 
ninety-two layers at that point. 
