Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides and other Crystals in Plants. 39 



Passifioracece. — No raphides, but an abundance of beautiful 

 sphaeraphides, in the petioles and leaves of two species of Passi- 

 fiora. 



Composite. — I have already described ('Annals/ Jan. 1863, 

 and July 1864, p. 55) the crystals in the ovary-coat of this 

 order. They are generally very remarkable in the suborder 

 Cynarocephalese ; and their form may differ curiously even in 

 two nearly allied species of one genus. Thus in Centaurea nigra 

 the beautiful and numerous crystals are about -p^-o-th of an inch 

 long and -g-rVoth thick, with three or four faces and angular 

 pointed ends ; while in C. scabiosa and C. ragusina the crystals 

 are not so elongated, but are lozenge-shaped, square or cubical, 

 and regularly about -o-rVo th of an inch in diameter. 



Oleacece. — The British plants of this order are devoid of 

 raphides; and only a few sphzeraphides were found in the leaves 

 of Olea latifolia. 



Orchidacece. — Leaves of Goodyera repens, G. discolor, Listera 

 ovata, Neottia spiralis, Cypripedium calceolus, C. spectabile, C. 

 venustum, C. insigne, C. sp., Zyyopetalum Mackayi, Z. crinitum, 

 Dendrobium nobile, Epipactis paluftris, E. latifolia, Cymbidium 

 sinense and C. aloifolium : in all these, raphides are more or less 

 abundant, but scantier in the last three than in the before-named 

 plants of the order; plentiful in the stem, ovary, and placenta, 

 and scanty in the sepals and petals, of Cypripedium spectabile ; 

 and the raphis-cells well seen through the leaf of Neottia. In 

 the leaves of C. insigne (if I have not mistaken the plant) were 

 also numerous larger crystal prisms, like those of Fourcroya. 



These observations are all to the same effect as the former 

 ones (' Annals/ March 1864) „ Every species which I have yet 

 examined of this order affords raphides, while I have failed to 

 find them at all in the few species tried for the purpose in the 

 two orders Hydrocharidaceas and Scitaminese, between which 

 the order Orchidacese stands in Professor Balfour's ' Manual of 

 Botany/ 



Iridacea. — In Iris deflexa the crystal prisms have commonly 

 four equal sides, and the ends as if cut off obliquely from angle 

 to angle or from face to face ; while in Witsenia corymbosa the 

 prisms are mostly truncate; and in this last plant they are much 

 more plentiful in the pale base than in the other part of the leaf. 

 Trichonema columnee and the garden Crocus : crystal prisms in 

 the leaves. Sisyrinchium anceps, S. Bermudianum, and S. stria- 

 tum : neither crystal prisms nor raphides in the leaves. And I 

 have failed to find such crystals, after repeated trials during se- 

 veral years and at various seasons, in a plant of S. anceps grow- 

 ing side by side in my garden with species of Narcissus, Orni- 



