THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROWTH-RING WIDTH AND RAY DENSITY AND RAY HEIGHT IN CELL NUMBER IN THE EARLYWOOD OF PINUS-HALEPENSIS AND PINUS-PINEA

The relationship between growth-ring width and ray size and number was studied in five 24-year-old trees of Pinus halepensis Mill. and five 16-year-old trees of Pin us pinea L. All trees of both Pin us species showed a gradual tendency for an increase in ray height, from an avera ge of less than 4 cells near the pith to 7 or 8 cells in the outer rin gs. Ray number decreased from more than 70 rays per mm(2) near the pit h to about 40 rays per mm(2) in the outer rings. No significant correl ation was found between growth-ring width and the number of rays per m m(2) or height of rays for three out of five trees of P. halepensis or for any of the five P. pinea trees. I conclude that there is no gener al direct relationship between growth-ring width and ray number and si ze.