TEXTURE OF STEiiS. 117 



We have noticed the articulated stem of the Cactus. 

 from the summit of which, new branches arise, readily 

 distinguished by the intervening and contracted joints, 

 and furnishing an example of the proliferous stem. — 

 These are mostly tropical plants, though one species 

 occurs frequently in New-England, and others thrive 

 on the banks of the Missouri. Destitute of leaves, 

 they are beset with rigid spines, and form, when prop- 

 erly arranged, an impenetrable hedge ; but in spite of 

 their armature, the wild antelope of the plains, nnds 

 means to render the-n subservient to its wants. * 



The arrangement presented by the transverse sec- 

 tion of a woody stem, the annual layers, the silver 

 grain by which they are intersected, the vessels through 

 which the fluids pass, and the cellular texture which 

 binds them together, rendering the whole solid and 

 compact, have been already noticed. The arrange- 

 ment presented to our view, by the transverse section 

 of annual stems is somewhat different, their cellular 

 texture being more abundant, and the vessels through 

 which the sap passes being variously arranged, but as- 

 suming in each plant a determinate form, peculiar to its 

 tfihe A transverse section of the Date Palm, exhib- 

 its ■ over the whole surface, a great number of black 

 spots, dispersed without any regular order, upon a 

 white ground, larger in the centre and smaller in the cir= 

 umference. but the largest not being more than the 

 r hird of a line in diameter. These spots are tLe divi- 

 ded extremities of bundles of longitudinal nbres, pass- 

 ing from the base to the summit of the stem, in a di- 

 rection parallel to its axis. v t Such is the arrangement 

 presented not merely by the Date Palm, but by an ex- 



* Xuttall. • Keith. 



