[47] 



Ibalf^an^lbour at tbc fllMcroecopc, 



Mitb mv, Uuffcn Mest, if.X.S., jf.lR./ID.S., etc. 



Onosma tauricu? (Plate III., Figs, i, 2, 3). — I am much obliged 

 to our friend, J. Carpenter (p. 51), for his reference to the article 

 on stellate hairs in Science Gossip. His description of the plant 

 scarcely does justice to its merits. I call it a dainty little flower, 

 which must now possess special interest to us as microscopists. 

 It is scarcely necessary to apologise for introducing a figure from 

 The Botanic Garden, Vol. II., No. 234. The name comes from 

 the Greek oa^i] (psiue), smell or savour. " When the soil is very 

 dry, and the situation sufficiently warm and sheltered to support it 

 in health, this little plant (only three inches high) becomes desir- 

 able as an ornament to the fiower-border." The preparation 

 before us becomes an interesting companion to a specimen of 

 the leaf mounted as an opaque object by another member. 

 Examining the leaf with which we are now favoured, I should 

 prefer it mounted in a cell deep enough to prevent disarrangement 

 by pressure. We should then see its connection with Lycopsis 

 arvensis (Fig. 5). In the latter there are large hairs seated on an 

 expanded cellular base, having carbonate of lime in the cells. 

 Both plants belong to the same natural order (Boraginace^). 

 Now, if each of the basal cells were produced into a spine, the 

 conditions presented by Onosma would be found. Imagine the 

 basal cells to communicate with the central spine, and to secrete a 

 highly irritating fluid, and we should have what is found in the 

 stings of nettles (Fig. 4) and the loasas. 



Scales from Bracken (Plate III., Figs. 6 and 7) form a charming 

 object. ''A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." With this grace- 

 ful fern growing in our hedges, and over acres of common around, 

 I yet was unaware of the beautiful scale it bears, the technical 

 name for which is ranienta (chaffy scales). I must ask on what 

 part of the plant they are situated. Seeking them lately, I could 

 only get on the young, still buried shoots, long jointed hairs (Fig. 

 7), which form a thick felted covering, which wraps it up like a 

 warm blanket against the frost. 



Fern (oblique section), probably Bracken ; shows well the 

 structure of the "■' Scalar if arm vessels" so characteristic of ferns. 

 Henfrey says, " These, so-called from the ladder-like markings, are 

 a very regular form of the reticulated type" (of ducts); "this 

 regularity appearing to depend however upon the relation between 

 the markings of the adjacent organs. ... In the scalariform 

 ducts a spiral fibrous deposit is conjoined into a network by 



