Observations on the Anatomy of Ash-wood with 
Reference to Water-conductivity. 
BY 
M. G. HOLMES, B.Sc. 
With seven Figures in the Text. 
J investigation into the anatomy of Ash-wood has been carried out on 
ii the lines of that described for Hazel-wood in a previous paper. 1 
Attention was directed chiefly to the proportion of the water-conducting 
elements present in the wood. The results are presented graphically, and 
are intended to make possible a comparison between different parts of the 
same shoot as regards this character, as well as between shoots which differ 
in size and vigour. 
Material. 
As in the case of the Hazel, the Ash-wood here investigated was all 
wood of the first year. Three of the specimens, A3, A 4, and A 6, were 
typical stool shoots, long, thick, and unbranched, with long internodes and 
the scars of large leaves ; they were cut on March 10, 1918, from separate 
Ash stools which had had one season’s growth after coppicing. Specimen 
A 8 was cut on May t 8, 1918, from an Ash stool of four years’ growth, 
being the upper part of one of the shoots, bearing several laterals of the 
previous season ; three of these were chosen for comparison with the first- 
year stool shoots. They are much shorter than the latter, and lack some of 
the vigour characteristic of the juvenile form. At the season when A 8 was 
cut, the buds had opened and the leaves were beginning to expand ; the 
external appearance of the shoot is shown in Fig. 1. 
In the Ash the opposite leaves of a pair are often not placed exactly 
level ; sometimes in the stool shoots they are several centimetres apart. In 
these circumstances the position of the node was taken for convenience of 
comparison as the middle transverse plane between the upper limits of the 
two leaf scars, and the internodes were measured accordingly. The lengths 
of the whole shoots and of their internodes are compared in Fig. 2 . The 
1 Holmes, M. G. : A Study in the Anatomy of Hazel-wood with Reference to Conductivity of 
Water. Ann. of Bot., vol. xxxii, 1918. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXIII. No. CXXX. April, i 9 ig.] 
