MANUAL FOB SUGAR GROWERS. 



All Tegetable structures are built up of minute 



cells of very various shape. Tlie simplest cell is a 

 chamber whose walls are thin and 

 usually has fluid contents : these 

 cells joined together form a tissue, 

 and aggregates of different tissues 

 form the root, stem, and leaves, 

 the three portions of which plants 

 consist. In order to study these 

 cells the microscope must be em- 

 ployed. A thin slice of the soft 

 part of the sugar-cane, cut length- 

 wise, presents the appearance 

 shown in Fig. 1, w-here it w^ill be 

 seen that the greater portion of 

 the stem is composed of cells 

 which are of about the same 

 length as breadth, with thin walls, 

 and haAdng, as seen in section, a 



honeycomb - like appearance ; 



these are usually spoken of as 



cells — ordinary cells, without 



any qualifying term. Travers- 

 ing this cellular tissue wdll be 



seen a number of thread-like 



cells running parallel with each 



other ; a closer inspection, on 



magnifpng these threads to a 



greater degree, as seen in Fig. 



2, shows that the thread-like 



cells are not all alike. Some are tubes with thin 



walls, having rings arranged on the inside of the 



Fig. 1. — Fibro-vascular 

 bundles in sugar-cane ; 

 a, longi t u d i n a 1 ; h, 

 transverse section. 



Fig, 2.— Fibro-vascular bun- 

 dles in sugar-cane ; a, fibres ; 

 h, vessels. 



