BURGESS ON THE MICROSCOPE. 335 



outset, that the part which is generally supposed to he the " most dry" in 

 all pursuits, is in the microscope often quite as pleasing as the more 

 perfect and far advanced knowledge. 



There is now an invisible world before us to investigate. I now pro- 

 pose to take two common and familiar objects to describe and explain, 

 and with this close the present paper. We will suppose it to be spring 

 time, and that we have found the common *' Buttercup," (of the Banuncu- 

 lus family), in a ramble through one of the fields. We pluck a flower, it 

 is a common thing having a bright yellow color ; well, question No. 1 

 suggests itself thus — Does the yellow color exist throughout the whole of 

 each of the petals, for they appear yellow on each side ? — and so would 

 appear to have this coloring matter running through the whole of the 

 mass of which the petal is composed. We proceed to dissect the petal to 

 ascertain this, a perfect petal is selected, one fully matured, and perfectly 

 clean ; this we lay across the forefinger, holding the point with the thumb, 

 and the rounded top of the petal with the second finger, this position keeps 

 the petal quite tight and immovable, then with the other hand (commenc- 

 ing at the point of the petal) the thumb nail is brought on the upper 

 surface so as to " scrape up " a small part of a thin membranaceous covering 

 which exposes a perfectly white surface underneath it ; the thin cuticle of 

 this petal is carefully stripped off, and laid flat on a slip of perfectly clean 

 glass, and with a clean camel's hair brush laid down smoothly ; if not 

 quite flat in parts but lying in plaits or folds, it is of no consequence as 

 these parts give a very beautiful appearance under them icroscope. We 

 now proceed to examine this object under the microscoj^e, and find it to 

 be a piece of a golden yellow colored network, appearing somewhat like 

 a piece of brass-wire network, highly lacquered, with somewhat rounded 

 interstices (covered over with a yellow film) irregular in shape, size and 

 form, these are the ** pigment cells " which give the yellow color to the 

 petal* — but stop, what is this rounded ball of a yellow color, very finely 

 carved all over ? What can this be ! Well, this is one of the " Pollen 



* On examining the petal from which this film was taken, it will be seen to be 

 quite white and colorless, now on turning this over, the other side will be seen to be 

 yellow also, that film again can by care be stripped off, leaving the centre part quite 

 white. The result we arrive at is this, the petal is made up of three membranes (there 

 may prove to be more than three) which may be familiarly described thus — the centre 

 membrane is like a piece of white paper, on either side of which is pasted a piece of 

 yellow paper; such, when divided, being comprised clearly of three distinct layers ; 

 such in resemblance is the petal of the common " Buttercup." 



