Abstract
Commercial timbers fall into two categories — softwoods and hardwoods. These terms date from the medieval timber trade and were originally meant to give an indication of the hardness of the wood. However, the use of these terms nowadays is rather confusing since the distinction between the two groups of timbers is botanical rather than based on the true hardness of wood.
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Further Reading
Butterfield, B.G. and Meylan, B.A. (1980) Three-dimensional Structure of Wood, 2nd edn, Chapman & Hall, London.
Carlquist, S.J. (1988) Comparative Wood Anatomy: Systematic, Ecological and Evolutionary Aspects of Dicotyledon Wood, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Core, H.A., Côté, W.A. and Day, A.C. (1979) Wood Structure and Identification 2nd edn, Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, NY.
Esau, K. (1965) Plant Anatomy, Wiley, New York.
Haygreen, J.G. and Bowyer, J.L. (1989) Forest Products and Wood Science: An Introduction 2nd edn, Iowa State Univ. Press, Ames.
Panshin, A.J. and de Zeeuw C. (1980) Textbook of Wood Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Tsoumis, G. T. (1991) Science and Technology of Wood: Structure, Properties, Utilization, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Wilson, K. and White, D.J.B. (1986) The Anatomy of Wood: its Diversity and Variability, Stobart & Son, London.
Zimmermann, M.H. (1983) Xylem Structure and the Ascent of Sap, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
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© 1993 J.C.F. Walker
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Butterfield, B.G. (1993). The structure of wood: an overview. In: Primary Wood Processing. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8110-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8110-3_1
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