Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides and other Crystals in Plants. 331 



29. M. peronreo-calcaneus. Origin : from lower part of 

 shaft of the fibula. Insertion : into the upper surface of the 

 calcaneum. 001 oz. 



XXXVII. — Observations on Raphides and other Crystals in Plants. 

 By George Gulliver, F.R.S. 



[Continued from p. 117-] 



Vitacea and Araliacece. — In the last communication (' Annals' 

 for Aug. 1865) it was stated that raphides abound in all the 

 plants, therein specified, which I had examined of the order 

 Vitacea?, while every species of the allied or related orders, of 

 which comparative examinations were made, proved to be devoid 

 of this raphidian character. I have had an opportunity, through 

 the courtesy of a botanical friend, of dissecting a dried fragment 

 of the receptacle-stalk of that most curious plant, Pterisanthes 

 (Vitis Pterisanthes, Mic, /3. borneensis), a bit of the dried leaf- 

 blade and fruit-shell of Bersama abassynica, Fresen., and a part 

 of the dried leaf and flower of Natalia lucens, Hochst. (Rhaganus 

 lucens, E. Meyer). To the same genus, I have been told, Ber- 

 sama abassynica is referred by Hooker and Bentham. 



Pterisanthes, like Vitis, Cissns, and Leea, abounds in true 

 raphides and sphperaphides. The raphides of Pterisanthes are 

 about T -^rth of an inch long and -nnhro thick; the average 

 diameter of the sphperaphides is -^Vo-th of an inch. The Ber- 

 sama and Natalia are destitute of true raphides, but contain 

 numerous crystal-prisms, about -o-foth of an inch long and 

 -n-rrVb-th thick. These may be well seen in the leaf and inner 

 membrane of the fruit-shell of Bersama, and in the leaf, calyx, 

 petals, and pedicel of Natalia. The prisms have four equal 

 faces, and their ends slope off either from angle to angle or 

 from face to face. 



Thus species of all the genera adopted by Lindley under the 

 order Vitacese — Cissus, Vitis, Pterisanthes, Leea, and Rhaganus 

 — have now been examined, though too often in imperfect or 

 unsatisfactory fragments ; and in every one of these plants true 

 raphides were found, except the Bersama and Natalia (Rhaganus), 

 in which raphides are replaced by crystal-prisms. It may be 

 recollected that a like phenomenon occurs in the last order 

 (ltoxburghiacese) of the raphidian class Dictyogense, as described 

 in the 'Annals' for June 18C5. 



Of Araliacese and Vitacese, the comparative structure in the 

 leaves and some other parts has already been described ('Annals ' 

 for August 1865). I have lately examined fresh leaves and twigs 

 of Aralia spinosa, and a bit of a dried leaf-blade of A. racemosa. 



