| # Commercial timbers |

H.G. Richter and M.J. Dallwitz

### Acknowledgements

Most of the characters and associated notes used in this database correspond, with some modifications made necessary by the DELTA format requirements, to the ‘IAWA List of Microscopic Features for Hardwood Identification’ (IAWA Bulletin n.s. 10(3): 219–332, 1989).

Part of the microscopic illustrations accompanying the character list and coded wood descriptions have been created with the help of Olympus Europe headquarters, Hamburg, Germany, others by courtesy of the Mineralogical and Petrographical Institute, University of Hamburg. The company’s and institute’s continuous support is gratefully acknowledged. Illustrations scanned directly from printed sources are marked accordingly.

All coded wood descriptions in the database have been elaborated on the basis of the wood and slide collection (RBHw) of the Thünen-Institute for Wood Research, Hamburg, Germany. Major additional literature sources consulted are given in the references.

Thanks are due to all those who have contributed to making the coded taxon descriptions, e.g., Edda John, Michael Trockenbrodt, Claudia Muche, Annelies de Groote, Bieke Lybeer, Lidia Pérez de Molas, Antonio Silva Guzmán; to those who have cooperated with elaborating, or have provided, illustrations for the database, e.g., Christina Waitkus, Veronica Angyolossy Afonso; to those who have helped in preparing the translations into French, Portuguese and Spanish, e.g. Caroline Loup, Pierre Detienne, Joăo Carlos Moreschi, Roland Vetter, Antonio Silva Guzmán, Francisco Fuentes Talavera; and to those who have lent their computing expertise to the successful development of the database, e.g. Toni Paine, Eric Zurcher.

We gratefully acknowledge the permission by the International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA) to incorporate the character comments and the respective references (see under IAWA References) elaborated by a special committee and published in the paper cited above.

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