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IV. — On the Crystals in the Testa and Pericaiy of several Orders 

 of Plants, and in other ^parts of the order Leguminosx. 

 By George Gtulliver, F.E.S. 



Plate XLIV. 



Sect. I. — Crystals in the Testa and Pericarp.* 



Interest of these Crystals. — Microscopists have of late been so 

 much interested by the markings on the surface of seeds, that for 

 specimens of them we see many advertisements ; and, indeed, these 

 pretty and attractive objects are now familiarly known and much 

 prized for the microscopic cabinet. But their value might be much 

 increased were the examination of them carried a little deeper into 

 the texture of the seed-coat and extended to its immediate cover- 

 ings ; and the present notice is intended to show that the crystals 

 which constantly abound in one or other of these joarts in many 

 plants, and are as constantly absent from the same parts in nume- 

 rous other plants, afibrd really beautiful microscopic objects, which 

 may prove good characters in systematic botany. Some of them, 

 too, have the advantage of being easily prepared and preserved, as 

 anyone may learn in the gooseberry, elm, black bryony, and the 

 geraniums. 



The inquiry concerning the distribution of the crystals may 

 afford, also, adiUtional means of illustrating the life history of 

 plants, still so miserably defective in our books of descriptive 

 botany ; and no doubt when these crystals have been sufficiently 

 studied they will supply instructive characters. We may expect 

 that those botanists who will not undertake the inquiry may con- 

 temn it by the general and true remark that such crystals occur in 

 numberless plants ; but this is no answer to the particular and 

 rational question as to the orders or species which are or are not 

 characterized by certain saline crystals in the fruit or other parts of 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLIV. 



All the objects are drawn to the scale of which each division represents 4^7^55*^ 

 of an English inch. 



Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 7. — Crystals in the pericarp and testa: Fig. 1, in the pericarp 

 of Geranium Eobertkinum ; Fig. 2, in the testa of tlie same ; Fig. 3, in 

 the pericarp of Geranium phceum; Fig. 7, four crystals from the testa 

 of 2'arnus communis. 

 Fio. 4.— Crystals in the sutural margin of the pod of Lnthyrus odoratus. 



„ 5. — Crystalline fibres from the leaf of Mimosa pudica. 



,, G — Crystalline fibre from the leaf of Phaseolus multijhrus. 



„ 8. — Crystalline tissue in the membranous part between the nerves of the 

 Calyx of Trifoliiim pi-atense. 



„ 9. — Crystals in the nerve of the same calyx. 



„ 10. — Four chains of crystals in the liber of Mimosa pudica with a row of five 

 parenuiiyma-cells to the right. 



* Read to the last meeting of the British Association at Bradford. 

 VOL. X. X 



