silver-grain

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In botany, the shilling plates of parenchymatous tissue (medullary rays) seen in the stems of exogenous wood when these stems are cut in a longitudinal radial direction. They are the little light-colored or bright bands that give to rock-maple, quartered oak, and the like their chief beauty, and make them prized in cabinet-work. Set medullary rays, under medullary.