THE ESSENTIALS OF HISTOLOGY 



to elastic fibres coiling round the white bundles, or to cell processes 

 encircling them, or to an investment or sheath which remains un- 

 broken at certain parts, and thus prevents the swelling up of the 

 bundle at these places. 



The cells of areolar tissue are generally flattened and more or less 

 branched (fig. 33), but may be of an elongated form. They usually con- 



FlG. 33. T\VO FLATTENED AND BRANCHED CONNECTIVE-TISSUE CORPUSCLES 

 FROM THE SUBCUTANEOUS AREOLAR TISSUE. 



Opposite I a secondary lamella, projecting towards the observer, is seen ill optical 



section as a dark line. 



tain a single large oval nucleus having the usual structure of cell-nuclei. 

 Their protoplasm is generally much vacuolated, and it may also contain 

 granules. In the middle coat of the eye the connective-tissue cells are 



filled with granules of pigment. 

 The cells lie in spaces in the 

 ground- sub stance between the 

 bundles of white fibres. In some 

 parts of the connective tissue the 

 white bundles are developed to 

 such an extent as to pervade 

 almost the whole of the ground- 

 substance, and then the con- 

 nective-tissue corpuscles become 

 squeezed into the interstices, 

 flattened lamellar expansions of 

 the cells extending between the 

 bundles, as in tendon (see next 

 lesson ) . The cells are frequently 

 joined either into a network by 

 branching processes (fig. 34), or 

 edge to edge, like the cells of an 

 epithelium (fig. 35); in either 

 case the cell- spaces are also con- 

 joined equally intimately. 



Besides the flattened, branched, 



and elongated connective-tissue corpuscles, others are met with which 

 are like very large lymph-corpuscles in appearance, and are filled with 

 distinct granules, which are stained deeply by aniline dyes. These 

 cells are very common in the neighbourhood of blood-vessels, espe- 



FIG. 34. RAMIFIED CONNECTIVE-TISSUE 

 CORPUSCLES, FROM ARTICULAR SYNOVIAL 

 MEMBRANE OF OX. 



