Abstract
THE conception of forestry as being ultimately dependent for its advance upon the interaction of a number of more or less independent basic sciences is a familiar one. The problems associated with the tree considered as a plant and with the forest considered either as an ecological unit or an artificial crop call for special methods of attack which, while primarily concerned with some aspect of forestry, can incidentally contribute to the general fund of botanical knowledge. The study of wood anatomy, with special reference to the production and utilisation of timber, is a case in point. In modern times this somewhat specialised subject has advanced along several different lines according to the points of view of the investigators concerned. The demand for practical methods of identifying and investigating the physical properties of commercial timbers has stimulated the study of species in this category. This has naturally been carried out more with reference to the important timbers of certain geographical regions than with botanical groups, and the woods of the north temperate zone in particular have received more than their fair share of attention.
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RENDLE, B. Wood Anatomy as a Link between Botany and Forestry*. Nature 130, 834–836 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130834a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130834a0