440 Mr Berwick's OhservatioTus on 



beautiful pink is taken on. The same result takes place 

 with 5 per cent. HNO3, and with picro-sulphuric acid. 



Baphides. 



These have been described as " the minute crystals of 

 various saline matters, which are taken up into the tissues 

 of plants, and whilst forming a part of the bulk of the 

 living plant, nevertheless obey the lower laws of crystalliza- 

 tion." ^ Dr Edwin Lankaster wrote on Eaphides in the 

 Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science ; as also did Professor 

 Gulliver, the latter treating the subject very exhaustively. 

 He says in a paper in that journal that " they commonly 

 occur in bundles within a living and beautiful cell, the 

 whole forming an organism as inimitable by mere chemistry 

 as a spore or a pollen grain." t But here I may state that 

 Vesque claims to have produced raphides chemically.;}; 

 Professor Gulliver says further, "that they are very easily 

 separable from each other and from their cell ; each raphis 

 is generally without any obvious faces or angles on the 

 shaft, which gradually vanishes without any angular appear- 

 ance to a point at either end." ^ By the term raphides in 

 the rest of this paper are to be understood the raphides 

 proper, i.e., acicular crystals. 



According to Professor Gulliver, among British dicotyle- 

 dons we can only name three orders characterised as raphis- 

 bearers, viz., Balsaminece (Lindley's alliance), Onagracew, 

 and Eubiacecc, || but they also occur in Bumex {Bolygoneoe). 

 He found that the seedlings of Willow Herb could, by 

 means of their raphis-bearing character, be readily diagnosed 

 from seedlings of other plants with which they were grown, 

 as soon as the seed leaves were well developed.H But by 

 means of the same character, I find that Galium Aparine, at 

 all events, can be recognised at a much earlier stage of 

 development. For when the radicle has projected '2 of an 

 inch (Plate III., fig. 8), the horizontal raphides — by horizontal 

 is meant the direction of right angles to the axis of the root or 

 rootlet; by vertical is meant the direction parallel to the axis of 



* English Botamj, vol. ix., 1873, p. 18. 

 t Quart. Jour, of Mic. Sci., vol. vi., 1866, p. 2. 

 J Ann. des Sc. Nat., ser. 5, tome xi.x., 1874, p. 300. 

 § Quart. Jour, of Mic. Sci., vol. vi., 1866, p. 6. 

 II Ibid, p. 5. IT Ibid, p. 4. 



