TASTE BUDS. 



181 



there are more slender forms in the interior of the bud, which reach the 

 pore. There are also a few flat ones confined to the lower half of the bud. 

 The taste cells are slender structures, being thickened to accommodate the 

 narrow nucleus. The nucleus is usually in the middle or lower part of the 

 cell. Toward the taste pore these cells generally taper, and they end in a 

 stiff refractive process which is a cuticular formation. These processes 

 extend into the deeper part of the pore but do not reach its outlet. The 

 taste cells may have a triangular base, or end bluntly. Their protoplasm 

 is darker than that of the supporting cells. 



Taste bud. 



Fibers between 

 the buds. 



Fibers overlying 

 a bud. 



Connective tissue 



Epithelium. 



Fibers within the buds. 



Connective tissue. 



Nerve. 



FIG. 204. FROM A VERTICAL SECTION OF THE FOLIATE PAPILLA OP A RABBIT. X[a2o. 



The nerves to the buds are branches of the glossopharyngeus, asso- 

 ciated with microscopic sympathetic ganglia. These nerves, both medul- 

 lated and nonmedullated, make a thick plexus in the submucous con- 

 nective tissue. The terminal branches probably end in part in bulb- 

 ous corpuscles, but most of them, as non-medullated fibers, enter the 

 epithelium. Some are found between the taste buds, extending to the 

 outer epithelial cells generally without branching (Fig. 204). Others 

 enter the buds, where they divide into coarse varicose branches which 

 reach almost to the taste pore. They end freely, without uniting with 

 the cells or anastomosing with one another. The terminal branches are 



