1892.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 89 



roadway for the rapid transmission of food. From an eighteen- 

 year-old stem a quarter-section was taken, so as to secure all the 

 elements in their relative proportion. From this the specific 

 gravity was found to be only two and a half times that of cork. 

 Thus at once is secured a stem of great strength and unusual 

 lightness. But truly the most wonderful element is the bast, so 

 fine that J, J. Rein, in a paper on the textile plants of Japan, 

 credits the Japanese with attempting its manufacture into linen. 

 This seems very feasible, for the elements have a diameter of 

 12 fx and reach a length of 230 fx, in appearance and measure- 

 ments corresponding closely with Linum usitatissimum (Fig. 13); 

 In their strength they exceed all the other elements of the stem. 

 From some rather unsatisfactory tests of the sustaining power of 

 the bast it was found that a piece two millimetres wide and one 

 millimetre thick would sustain a weight of twenty-two and 

 seventy-three hundredths kilos, more than one-fifth of the sustain- 

 ing strength of soft iron. Here again the adaptability of the 

 plant to its mode of life is manifest. The strength of the bast 

 cylinder alone would doubtless be sufficient to meet all strains 

 brought to bear upon it ; but considering the older stems, often 

 sirrounded by several concentric cylinders, the strongest form 

 of structure possible, the utility of the arrangement to the plant 

 is obvious. At the low estimate given above, an old stem before 

 me showing three bast zones would have a sustaining power of 

 over half a ton. There now remains for consideration the life 

 of the plant — by no means its least interesting feature. For in 

 the adaptation of its growth to meet the strain laid upon it, 

 there arose in the bast such a barrier to development that the 

 life of the plant must cease or the restraint be overcome. And so, 

 to secure to itself at once its element of strength and life, the 

 barrier wall is left unbroken and life begins anew beyond the 

 bast and without restraint. 



