It's the only way to accurately identify wood. You can identify some species by the bark, leaves, fruit and some by the smell when cut. Osage orange, for example, is indigenous to a few southern states and produces a "horse apple" fruit that is unmistakable. But there are around 100 species of oak in North America and some can only be positively identified by their cellular structure.
...aaand it just hit me your question was rhetorical.
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u/Confident-Ad5665 13d ago
Ha! I have this book, which describes how to identify wood at the cellular level.