16 



CHAPTER III. 



OF THE CUTICLE OR EPIDERMIS. 



Every part of a living plant is covered 

 with a skin or membrane called the cuticle, 

 which same denomination has been given 

 by anatomists to the scarf skin that covers 

 the animal body, protecting it from the 

 injuries of the air, and allowing of due absorp- 

 tion and perspiration through its pores. 



There is the most striking analogy between 

 the animal and the vegetable cuticle. In the 

 former, it varies in thickness from the exqui- 

 sitely delicate film which covers the eye, to 

 the hard skin of the hand or foot, or the far 

 coarser covering of a Tortoise or Rhinoceros ; 

 in the latter it is equally delicate on the parts 

 of a flower, and scarcely less hard on the 

 leaves of the Pearly Aloe, or coarse on the 

 trunk of a Plane tree. In the numerous layers 



