Larry Barrett
Not sure if how this fits in with your hints, but with the help of Google and Wikipedia, the three chemical constituents of wood are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The difference between hardwood and softwood is in the lignin. In hardwood the lignin is derived from sinapyl alcohol and coniferyl alcohol. Softwood lignin is mainly derived from coniferyl alcohol.
I doubt that I could repeat this tomorrow.