OCCURRENCE OF CRYSTALS IN SOME AUSTRALIAN TIMBERS. 435 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF CRYSTALS IN SOME 

 AUSTRALIAN TIMBERS. 



By R. T. Baker, f.l.s. 



[With Plates XXV-XXXIIL] 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, December 5, mi7.~) 



When examining micro-sections of our timbers it was 

 noticed that crystals occurred rather frequently amongst 

 the wood elements. In certain species they were either 

 isolated or varied in number from a few to as many as over 

 forty in an individual parenchyma, and even masses of 

 deposits in particular cases. 



Searching through publications at my disposal, no mention 

 could be found of this feature amongst Australian woods, 

 either in letter press or illustrations, and so I am moved to 

 record the specific instances of such occurrences which 

 have come under my notice. 



Amongst works on timbers, S.J. Record, in his "Economic 

 Woods of U.S.A.," p. 20, states, that crystals occur in all 

 species of Quercus, though they are more commonly 

 abundant in live Oaks (evergreen) than in deciduous species. 

 In Juglans (Walnut), Hicoria, and Diospyros, crystals are 

 often quite conspicuous. He also gives micro-photographs 

 of timber Hicoria pecan and Diospyros virginiana showing 

 crystals in situ, but in the latter instance not easy to detect, 

 and these were determined as calcium-oxalate. He also 

 mentions that these crystals are only slightly soluble in 

 the strongest acids. 



Henry Kraemer, in his "Applied and Economic Botany" 

 1914, p. 187, figures crystals (diagrammatic) identical in 

 form to those found by me in Australian woods, but they 

 are from the bark of Glycyrrhiza. 



