RINGS AND FALSE RINGS 



31 



to the fibres being smaller across and thicker- walled in one part of 

 each ring, whilst the vessels may be evenly dispersed through the 

 whole wood. Woods differ widely as to the circularity of their 

 rings. In not a few cases they are distinctly wavy ; and, whilst 

 in Beech and Hornbeam the crests of the waves — as seen in a 





cross-section — bend inwards at the primary pith-rays, in the Bar- 

 berry they bend outwards. In evergreens, to which type belong 

 the bulk of tropical broad-leaved timbers, where there is not the 

 check to physiological activity produced by the " fall of the leaf," 

 we do not, as a rule, find such well-marked annual rings. Some- 

 times, however, the annual rings are replaced by less completely 



