18 VEGETABLE FIBRE. 
sents no apertures or passages through it, which can be de- | 
tected by our present means of examination, though, from 
the phenomena of vegetation, there can be no doubt that it 
is capable of giving liquids a passage through its substance. 
The cavities which it forms frequently contain fluids, which 
afterwards disappear from them. It does not in general 
present any tendency to divide in one direction more t 
another ; so that at present it is regarded as a pa 
elementary form of vegetable matter. 
39. Dots observed on the elementary membrane 
sometimes been conjectured to be apertures for the pé 
of fluids ; but it is now generally supposed that these « 
merely thicker or thinner parts of the membrane, or sm 
grains of vegetable matter adhering to it, or arise from the 
modification of the vegetable fibre on the membrane, more 
or less adhering to it at different parts. 
’ 
+. 
VEGETABLE FIBRE. 
40. This seems to be another primary form of ve 
Inatter, seppesring as a slender tec, of extreme | 
oe ‘somewhat hooked at the extreity Sometines 
i hes 
gans—the cual of those party which, by > 
modes in which they a1 are — or ——_ 
