The Structure of the Secondary Wood of the New Zealand Myrtaceae

Abstract

Of recent years, various workers (29), have found that it is impracticable to survey adequately the anatomical characteristics of the timbers of any particular botanical group or family occurring in a restricted geographical zone. For many reasons a survey of this type should preferable cover the representatives of the group or family from a much wider sphere. Many papers have been published from time to time dealing with the timbers of various families and these have taken into consideration available material from all parts of the world. This work deals strictly with the anatomy of New Zealand genera, but to conform to the above principle, wood specimens of the Myrtaceae family from Australia, Solomon Islands and Polynesia, and descriptions from literature on wood specimens from New Guinea and Malayasia, have been briefly examined, but are not described, or recorded here except where the New Zealand genera differ markedly. The genera represented in New Zealand are Metrosideros and Leptospermum, belonging to the Leptospermeae tribe, and the two minor genera, Myrtus and Eugenia, belonging to the Myrteae. These four genera are described in this paper, and the anatomical structure of the secondary wood of the individual species of each New Zealand genus is examined not only with a view to facilitating the identification of the timber of the various species after conversion, but also with a view to examining the systematic position and relationship of each genus through the comparative anatomy of the secondary xylem.