Wood and Forest - William Noyes

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and broad-leaved trees—sometimes together called exogens—this protoplasm is to be found in the buds and in the cambium sheath, and these are the growing parts of the tree. If we followed up the sheath of cambium which envelopes a stem, into a terminal bud, we should find that it passed without break into the protoplasm of the bud.

      In the cross-section of a young shoot, we might see around the central pith or medulla, a ring of wedge-shaped patches. These are really bundles of cells running longitudinally from the rudiments of leaves thru the stem to the roots. They are made of protoplasm and are called the "procambium strands," Fig. 6.

Cross-section of a young shoot.

      Fig. 6. Three Stages in the Development of an Exogenous Stem. P, pith; PB, primary bast; SB, secondary bast; C, cambium; PR, pith ray; PW, primary wood; SW, secondary wood; PS, procambium strands. After Boulger.

      

      In the monocotyledons (endogens) these procambium strands change completely into wood and bast, and so losing all their protoplasmic cambium, become incapable of further growth. This is why palms can grow only lengthwise, or else by forming new fibers more densely in the central mass. But in the conifers and broad-leaved trees, the inner part of each strand becomes wood and the outer part bast (bark). Between these bundles, connecting the pith in the center with the cortex on the outside of the ring of bundles, are parts of the original pith tissue of the stem. They are the primary pith or medullary rays (Latin, medulla, pith). The number of medullary rays depends upon the number of the bundles; and their form, on the width of the bundles, so that they are often large and conspicuous, as in oak, or small and indeed invisible, as in some of the conifers. But they are present in all exogenous woods, and can readily be seen with the microscope. Stretching across these pith rays from the cambium layer in one procambium strand to that in the others, the cambium formation extends, making a complete cylindrical sheath from the bud downward over the whole stem. This is the cambium sheath and is the living, growing part of the stem from which is formed the wood on the inside and the rind (bark) on the outside.

      In the first year the wood and the bast are formed directly by the growth and change of the inner and outer cells respectively of the procambium strand, and all such material is called "primary;" but in subsequent years all wood, pith rays, and bast, originate in the cambium, and these growths are called "secondary."

Sap-wood and Heart-wood, Lignum Vitae.

      Fig. 7. Sap-wood and Heart-wood, Lignum Vitae.

      (3) The wood of most exogens is made up of two parts, a lighter part called the sap-wood or splint-wood or alburnum, and a darker part called the heart-wood or duramen, Fig. 7. Sap-wood is really immature heartwood. The difference in color between them is very marked in some woods, as in lignum vitae and black walnut, and very slight in others, as spruce and bass. Indeed, some species never form a distinct heart-wood, birch (Betula alba) being an example.

      In a living tree, sap-wood and heart-wood perform primarily quite different functions. The sap-wood carries the water from the roots to the leaves, stores away starch at least in winter, and in other ways assists the life of the tree. The proportional amount of sapwood varies greatly, often, as in long-leaf pine, constituting 40 per cent. of the stem.

      As the sap-wood grows older, its cells become choked so that the sap can no longer flow thru them. It loses its protoplasm and starch and becomes heartwood, in which all cells are dead and serve only the mechanical function of holding up the great weight of the tree and in resisting wind pressures. This is the reason why a tree may become decayed and hollow and yet be alive and bear fruit. In a tree that is actually dead the sap-wood rots first.

      Chemical substances infiltrate into the cell walls of heart-wood and hence it has a darker color than the sap-wood. Persimmon turns black, walnut purplish brown, sumac yellow, oak light brown, tulip and poplar yellowish, redwood and cedar brownish red. Many woods, as mahogany and oak, darken under exposure, which shows that the substances producing the color are oxidizable and unstable. Wood dyes are obtained by boiling and distilling such woods as sumach, logwood, red sanders, and fustic. Many woods also acquire distinct odors, as camphor, sandalwood, cedar, cypress, pine and mahogany, indicating the presence of oil.

      As a rule heart-wood is more valuable for timber, being harder, heavier, and drier than sap-wood. In woods like hickory and ash, however, which are used for purposes that require pliability, as in baskets, or elasticity as in handles of rakes and hoes, sap-wood is more valuable than heart-wood.

      In a transverse section of a conifer, for example Douglas spruce, Fig. 8, the wood is seen to lie in concentric rings, the outer part of the ring being darker in color than the inner part. In reality each of these rings is a section of an irregular hollow cone, each cone enveloping its inner neighbor. Each cone ordinarily constitutes a year's growth, and therefore there is a greater number of them at the base of a tree than higher up. These cones vary greatly in thickness, or, looking at a cross-section, the rings vary in width; in general, those at the center being thicker than those toward the bark. Variations from year to year may also be noticed, showing that the tree was well nourished one year and poorly nourished another year. Rings, however, do not always indicate a year's growth. "False rings" are sometimes formed by a cessation in the growth due to drouth, fire or other accident, followed by renewed growth the same season.

Section of Douglas Fir, Showing Annual Rings and Knots at Center of Trunk.

      Fig. 8. Section of Douglas Fir, Showing Annual Rings and Knots at Center of Trunk. American Museum of Natural History, N. Y.

      In a radial section of a log, Fig. 8, these "rings" appear as a series of parallel lines and if one could examine a long enough log these lines would converge, as would the cut edges in a nest of cones, if they were cut up thru the center, as in Fig. 9.

Diagram of Radial Section of Log (exaggerated) Showing Annual Cones of Growth.

      Fig. 9. Diagram of Radial Section of Log (exaggerated) Showing Annual Cones of Growth.

      In a tangential section, the lines appear as broad bands, and since almost no tree grows perfectly straight, these lines are wavy, and give the characteristic pleasing "grain" of wood. Fig. 27, p. 35. The annual rings can sometimes be discerned in the bark as well as in the wood, as in corks, which are made of the outer bark of the cork oak, a product of southern Europe and northern Africa. Fig. 10.

Annual Rings in Bark (cork).

      Fig. 10. Annual Rings in Bark (cork).

      The growth of the wood of exogenous trees takes place thru the ability, already noted, of protoplasmic cells to divide. The cambium cells, which have very thin walls, are rectangular in shape, broader tangentially than radially, and tapering above and below to a chisel edge, Fig. 11. After they have grown somewhat radially, partition walls form across them in the longitudinal, tangential direction, so that in place of one initial cell, there are two daughter cells radially disposed. Each of these small cells grows and re-divides, as in Fig. 12. Finally the innermost cell ceases to divide, and uses its protoplasm to become thick and hard wood. In like manner the outermost cambium cell becomes bast, while the cells between them continue to grow and divide, and so the process goes on. In nearly all stems, there is much more abundant formation of wood than of bast cells. In other words, more cambium cells turn to wood than to bast.

Diagram Showing Grain of Spruce Highly Magnified.

      Fig. 11. Diagram Showing Grain of Spruce Highly Magnified. PR, pith rays; BP, bordered pits; Sp W, spring wood; SW, summer

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