HGEMENTS OF PLANT ANATOMY. 
PARE <I. 
ANATOMY OF THE CELL. 
CHAPTER I. — THE VEGETABLE CELL IN GENERAL. 
1. General Description of the Plant Cell. 
A THIN cross-section from the stem or leaf of any plant 
shows, when magnified, a network of cells not unlike those of 
the honeycomb. This fact was first discovered in 1667 by 
Robert Hooke, an Englishman, who happened to take such a 
section to test the improvements he was making on the micro- 
scope. The first real study of cell-structure was made by 
Malpighi, an Italian, in the year 1671. The section thus 
examined appears to be divided into small chambers or cavities, 
separated from each other by a common wall. The single 
cavity with its enclosing wall, hike a room in a house, received 
the name of cell. The origin of these cells, or elements of 
plant-structure, was at first supposed to be similar to that of 
air bubbles in a somewhat viscous liquid; but this supposition 
was soon found untenable, as in no young growing tissues was 
there found any indication of the lquid in which the bubbles 
were supposed to form. 
At a much later period it was discovered that the wall, or 
membrane, which gave the name to the cavity which it sur- 
rounds, was really the less important part and that the cell 
