276 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 
simple metals, should also be oxides, can scarcely be cone 
jectured with the same degree of probability, and is indeed 
contrary to our present views of their nature. 
I have ventured into a wide field of hypothetical specu< 
Jation, in which it is very difficult to find the truth, and I 
must beg the reader to examine my suggestions with in- 
dulgence. Ihave thought it necessary to do this, hecause 
I have been sorry to see that so distinguished a chemist 
as Mr. Davy, who has communicated to the learned world, 
with exemplary modesty, the greatest and most important 
discoveries that haye ever enriched the science, has still 
found opponents who seem often to be more desirous of 
proving that he is in the wrong, than of investigating the 
real truth of the points to be discussed. 
[To be continued.] 
KLVI. Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. By 
H. F. Link, of Breslau, formerly of Rostock*. 
Tue anatomy of plants is a new science, known only since 
the microscope came to be used in the investigations of 
natural history. Itis by the use of this instrument alone 
that we can observe the interior organs of plants; for the 
immense trees which grow in our forests only extract their 
nourishment by the organs which are exposed to view, 
It might have been imagined that the pives and firs, those 
giants of the vegetable kingdom in the countries of the 
north, would have exhibited larger vessels ; but, on the con- 
trary, the interior parts of these trees are still smallerthan in 
the smallest grasse# The vessels of the palm-tree do not 
exceed in size those which we see in the amaranth. The 
insects which feed upon the leaves of the oak have traches 
larger than the stalk which bears them, and which feeds a 
great number of them. Hence there are as many different 
opinions as there are authors who have wriiten upon this 
subject. 
Malpighi and Grew were the first naturalists who made 
use of microscopes to examine the interior of vegetables, 
and to these accurate observers the anatomy of plants owes 
its origin. A century almost elapsed without more than 
one important fact being added to the discoveries of these 
great men. In 1733, Father Sarrabat found that water 
coloured by the berries of the phytolacca decandra merely 
penetrated into the wood of plants, and left the bark and 
* Annales du Museym d'Histoire Naturelle, tome xix. p. 307. 
pith 
