GULLIVER, ON RAPHIDES,. C 
these orders as henceforth should claim a place in every true de- 
scription of their nature. Were Lindley’s plan of Alliances used 
in our Flora, the shortest and most constantly present mere 
diagnosis for Balsaminacee might be—Geraniales, abounding 
in raphides ; and in like manner of the two other orders. 
MonocryLepons. 
Raphides are much more plentiful in this than in the pre- 
ceding class, so no wonder that a partial examination should 
have led to the belief that “they are abundant in Monoco- 
tyledons generally.’ This and other such vague and incor- 
rect statements are current in our best and latest treatises of 
phytotomy; whereas the truth is that, however raphides may 
abound in many Monocotyledons, they are either very scarce 
or absolutely wanting in several’ extensive orders of this 
class. As before mentioned, our indigenous plants only are 
now under consideration ; and we shall soon see that about a 
fifth part of the ‘ Manual of British Botany’ is occupied by 
Monocotyledons and Cryptogamez Ductulosz, which I have 
searched in vain for raphides. 
Dictyogene.—In all our plants of this group raphides are 
plentiful, and they occur in every one of the exotic members 
of it that I have examined; only in Roxburghia raphides are 
mostly replaced by crystal prisms. I have found that the 
beautiful shrub Lapageria is also a raphis-bearing plant. 
In the lineal series of the natural arrangement the Dictyo- 
gene stand isolated by this character between Coniferze and 
Hydrocharidacez, two orders in which it is wanting. 
Hydrocharidacee.—This order is remarkable as devoid of 
the raphidian character, though standing between two groups, 
Dictyogenz and Orchidacee, in fuil possession thereof. 
Orchidacee.—Raphides were found in every plant, British 
and foreign, that I have examined of this order. They are 
by no means confined to the sepals, as might be supposed 
from current descriptions, but are common in the placenta 
and ovary, in the stem and leaves, and parts which are mo- 
difications of leaves, and in the roots. The raphides are 
commonly much shorter than their soft pale cells, and may 
be well seen without disturbing them through the semi- 
transparent edge of the leaf of Neottia spiralis. 
Iridacee.—True raphides are scanty and often not to be 
detected in this order, but it abounds in crystal prisms 
(‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.,’? March, 1865). These last occur in 
all our plants except Sisyrinchium anceps, in which, as well as 
in the exotic S. Bermudianum and S. striatum, I have failed 
