﻿Prof. Bailey on the Crystals found in Plants. 21 



tides. In very young leaves these crystals were only found 

 along the midrib and some of the principal veins. In the leaves 

 of other plants, the crystals were found by this method to be 

 scattered in stellate bunches all through the parenchyma of the 



leaf. 



Nelumbiu 



ria adiantifolia, Acalypha virginica, and many others, gave most 

 beautiful displays of these groups* 



Having found by the above mentioned experiments that crys- 

 talline matter was present in vegetable tissues in much greater 

 abundance than is generally supposed, I next endeavored to ascer- 

 tain if the crystals in different plants had any relation in form 

 and composition. I soon found that in a very great number of 

 dicotyledonous plants, the crystals could all be referred to modifi- 

 cations of the form represented in fig. 4. The most common 

 form is shown in figures 5, 6, 7, and 8, which show different po- 

 sitions of similar crystals. This form appears to be a rhombic 

 prism oblique from an acute edge, and with the acute edges re- 

 placed by the planes c, ?.* This form I shall refer to as form A. 

 With the above, the unmodified prism, fig. 10, sometimes occurs, 

 as in Rosa rubiginosa, Broussonetia, &c. 



Compound or twin crystals, derived from the same primary, are 

 also very frequent. Fig. 9 shows a common form, in which com- 

 position has taken place parallel to the plane P. 



Crystals belonging to form A were found by me abundantly in 

 more than one hundred species of plants, belonging to upwards 

 of thirty different families, which families include the great ma- 

 jority of dicotyledonous trees and shrubs, besides many herba- 

 ceous plants. 



The extent to which this form occurs will be understood when 

 I state that it is found abundantly in every species of maple, 

 birch, chestnut, oak, beech, apple, pear, quince, cherry, plum, rose, 

 willow, elm, locust, mulberry, &c. among our indigenous and 

 cultivated trees; and in mahogany, orange sandal wood, logwood, 

 lignum-vitae, and many other exotic species. 



In the annexed table is given a more detailed list of the plants 

 in which form A was found. It doubtless could be much exten- 

 ded, but my herbarium is too limited to allow me to make so gen- 

 eral an examination as is desirable. 



* I use the notation given by Dana, in his excellent System of Mineralogy 





