152 



The Microscope. 

 ABSTRACTS. 



CATHA LEAVES. 

 Professor FLUCKIGER and J. E. Gerock contribute to the 

 -■- British Year-Book of Pharmacy for 1887 an interesting paper 

 on Kat, its history, properties and uses. According to Botta, the virtue 

 of these leaves is similar to that of the coca plant, and it is used in 

 Yemen and other parts much as the coca is in the Cordilleras. 



The leaves of the catha are leathery, of a dull shining green on 

 the upper surface, pale beneath, entirely glabrous, and traversed 

 by a reddish mid-rib giving off a system of veins running toward 



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the edges and the apex without exhibiting any remarkable 

 peculiarity. The same applies to the anatomical structure of the 

 leaf. Fig. A shows the epidermis of the upper surface of the leaf. 

 Fig. B that of the under surface, which is provided with stomata 



Fig. C is a transection of that 

 portion of the leaf which is 

 occupied by the mid-rib. The 

 section shows the usual struc- 

 tial elements as met with in 

 many other leaves, without 

 any peculiar features. The 

 leaves belong to that class pro- 

 vided with but one layer of 

 "palissade cells," within the 

 epidermis of the upper sur- 

 face; in catha that layer is 



