Specimens: Wood and Bark

Leeuwenhoek observed wood and bark for forty years. His observations were thorough enough that Nehemiah Grew wrote in the

Links to letters below under Learn more.

  • 1673 August 15 (Letter 2 [2]) to Henry Oldenburg: on the growth, valves and the transport of sap in pinewood and deal
  • 1676 May 29 (Letter 23 [16) to Henry Oldenburg: cinnamon wood
  • 1680 January 12 (Letter 54 [29] to Robert Hooke: the vessels in the wood of oak, elm, beech, willow, ash, ebony, and box, the transport of sap and valves
  • 1686 April 2 (Letter 90 [49]) to Members of the Royal Society: the growth of the bark
  • 1686 July 10 (Letter 94 [52]) to Members of the Royal Society: wood of oak, pine, and ash
  • 1692 August 12 (Letter 122 [74]) to Members of the Royal Society: deal, pine, lime
  • 1695 May 1 (Letter 143 [88]) to Anthonie Heinsius: vessels in the root wood of the nutmeg tree
  • 1696 June 1 (Letter 166) to Peter Rabus: a brief remark on wood rays in the hazel
  • 1707 July 25 (Letter 270) to Members of the Royal Society: cinchona bark
  • 1716 September 28 (Letter ??? [XXVIII]) to Boerhaave: