The importance of wood as a building material, for making paper and for crafting lovely musical instruments and sports equipment is well known. Within the tree, wood plays the important role of transporting water from the roots to the leaves. But who would have imagined that tree wood also contains many beautiful patterns. The patterns illustrated in these photographs depict the arrangement of cells within slices of woods of various types. To prepare these photographs, wood samples were thinly sliced using a microtome, a machine similar to a meat slicer. The wood slices were placed on glass microscope slides and then stained with multicolored dyes to highlight the organization of cells. The slides were examined and patterns photographed using a light microscope.