BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 250 



ITALY. — Prodromo della flora Toscana, di Teodoro Caruel. 

 Florence. 8vo. 



THE EAST — Flora orientalis sive Enumeratio plantanim in 

 oriente a Graccia et Acgyjito ad Indiae fines hucusquc obscrvatarum 

 auctore Edmund lioissier. IJasle. 8vo. The parts already pub- 

 lished extend through the order Borraginacca'. 



Tlio Intonial llnirs of Nynii)lifK'a nnd Niipliar.— In the 



Ariicricari Monthly Miooscopical Journal lor ]m\c vlw^. ]\.\\y, Mr. Chas. 

 F. Cox, F. R. M. S. , gives a very interesting ])aper on the "Epider- 

 mal Organs of Plants." In taking up the physiological portion of the 

 subject he considers that stomata are not only of use in evaporation, 

 but are directly connected with the assimilative process, while hairs 

 are connected with metastasis. From his discussion of internal 

 hairs we make the following extract: 



If we examine with the microscope a section of the leaf, or the 

 petiole, of a plant from either of these genera {Ah'nip/nra and Nu- 

 phar), we are at once struck by certain abundant, thickened, branch- 

 ing, unicellular structures scattered through the parenchyma and pro- 

 jecting into the intercellular spaces. These structures have long at- 

 tracted the attention of microscopists, but not until recently have they 

 been distinctly recognized as internal hairs. The standard text-books 

 of the microscope, such as Car])enter's and the Micrographic Diction- 

 ary refer rather doubtfully to the resemblance between these bodies 

 and the stellate external hairs of Dctttzia and Alyssiini, but they gener- 

 ally shyly avoid calling thein plainly internal hairs. Some writers 

 speak of them as "stellate parenchymal cells;" and on a purchased 

 slide which I own, they are described as "stellate raphides." But out 

 of the confusion and uncertainity which has prevailed with regard to 

 these structures, there has gradually crystallized a clear and definite 

 recognition of the fact that they really are epidermal organs, exactly 

 analogous to the external hairs of terrestrial plants, such as we have 

 been considering. 



In the first place, the mere morphology of these structures con- 

 firms the idea of their being truly hairs. In their outlines they so 

 closely resemble some of the external hairs with which we are fiimiliar 

 (for instance those of the genus Ara/>is), that their analogy is at once 

 suggested to the observer. 'I'hey seem, however, to be always uni- 

 cellular growths, and transverse sections show them to be hollow. 

 Over their surfaces are scattered the grains of silex, so characteristic 

 of other h'-iirs, and made particularly familiar to us by the hairs of the 

 Dcutzias. If one wishes astriUingdemonstration ofthe mere resemblance 

 of these internnl hairs to better known external hairs, he hn.s onl} lo 

 split the petiole of Nuphar or NynipJuca by tearing, and view it with 

 the binocular as an opacpie object. This, of itself, will be convinc- 

 ing to most persons acquainted with the peculiarities of leaf hairs. 



But, aside from configuration and other merely mori)hological 

 considerations, the mode of distribution of these internal hairs is al- 

 most precisely like that of external hairs. If we take a thin section 



