[SOFT a.]

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  1.  Wood that is relatively soft or easily cut.

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1832.  Planting (L. U. K.), 77. The … discriminating characters of hard and of soft woods.

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1857.  Gray, First Less. Bot., 147. In soft woods, such as White-Pine and Basswood, they [tubes] are pretty thin.

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1884.  Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 478. Of the forms of vessels,… the reticulately thickened are present exclusively or principally in succulent soft woods.

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  b.  Sap-wood, alburnum.

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1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 21. In woody stems of several years’ growth…; the more recent exterior layers are known as soft wood or alburnum.

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  2.  A species of the West Indian bully-tree.

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1864.  Grisebach, Flora Brit. W. Ind., 787/2. Soft-wood, black: Myrsine læta.

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