Introduction

Abstract

Wood is a marvellous tissue; it never ceases to fascinate me, be it as a construction material for buildings, ships, fine musical instruments, or as the delicate structure one sees in the microscope. Wood is described in standard plant anatomy texts (e.g., Esau 1965; Fahn 1974), and in books that are entirely devoted to it (Harlow 1970; Meylan and Butterfield 1972, 1978 a; Bosshard 1974; Core et al. 1979; Pan-shin and de Zeeuw 1980; Baas 1982 a, and others). Microscopic anatomy is a useful tool for wood identification, it is also of interest to biologists who are concerned with the evolution of plants, because the xylem is easily fossilized.