112 



VIEWS OF THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD. 



detailing numerous discoveries made by himself. The attention of Prof. B. was 

 accidentally led to the pursuit of this subject by noticing, one day, the ashes of 

 a hickory ember, in which the natural structure of the wood was preserved unin- 

 jured, by the saline matter which had resisted the action of the fire. In order 

 to preserve this structure, the Professor prepared a slip of glass with melted Canada 

 balsam, and touching the ashes gently with the adhesive side, the delicate longi- 

 tudinal section was transferred to the balsam, and became firmly fixed in this 

 substance as it cooled and indurated ; -each part of the structure retaining the 

 same relative position as it possessed in the wood. When the preparation was 

 placed under the microscope, long rows of polygonal bodies of a brownish hue 

 were clearly perceived. Similar bodies were discovered in the ashes of the oak, 

 and in those of most dicotyledonous* trees, both native and foreign, constituting 

 a large proportion of the insoluble matter of the ashes. 



Prof. Bailey was at first in doubt, whether these bodies were in fact true crys- 

 tals, or simply saline matter which had taken the form of the cells in which it 

 had concreted. 



This doubt was solved by observing the bark of hickory when illumined by 

 the rays of the sun ; numerous glittering particles were then seen, which proved, 

 on examination, to be crystals ; for when thin layers of bark, or sections of wood 

 and bark were viewed by a microscope, the crystals were detected imbedded in their 

 natural position. 



They were, however, better seen by scraping the bark upon a plate of glass, 

 upon moistening which with the breath, the crystals were made to adhere to 

 the surface, while the woody particles were readily blown off. When placed 

 under the microscope the glittering atoms then appeared as beautiful transparent 

 crystals, having the forms exhibited in figures 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 and 170 ; 



some being single as in 

 165,166, and others pos- 

 sessing a com pound form, 

 as shown in figure 168. 



These crystals, when 

 prepared with balsam, 

 were identical in every 

 particular with the poly- 

 gonal bodies found in the 

 ashes. 



These singular and interesting results led Prof. B. to extend his investigations, 

 and he had the pleasure of discovering that the bark of every species of oak, 

 birch, chestnut, poplar, elm, locust, and of all the common fruit trees, as the apple, 

 pear, plum, cherry ; and likewise of a great number of others, were filled 

 with crystals crowded together in vast numbers. When thin layers of the 



165. 



* From the Greek dis, double, and cotyledon, a seed-leaf. Trees whose seeds divide into two 

 parts, as the sprout 



