LECT. III.] CELLULAR TEXTURE. 71 



of those opinions by which the mind is amused, 

 when research is fruitless." Indeed, the nicest 

 microscopical examinations have not thrown any 

 light on its structure ; and we may safely aver that 

 no appearances of organization have hitherto been 

 detected in it. When placed under the microscope 

 in a moist state, it resembles the film of a soap- 

 bubble * ; but. as it can be examined only as form- 

 ing other textures, our observations must always be 

 liable to error. It is that component of the vege- 

 table structure, which constitutes its basis ; or 

 which, in its lax state, forms the cellular and the 

 glandular textures and the epidermis; a little con- 

 densed, the vascular texture, and perhaps, still more 

 consolidated, the ligneous fibre : consequently, it 

 enters into the whole of the solid materials of the 

 vegetable body. 



The Cellular texture is formed from the mem- 

 branous. It presents, in the parts of a plant where 

 it is not compressed, the appearance of hexagonal 

 cells, resembling those of a honeycomb. Grew, 

 and some other botanical anatomists, had observed 

 these cells, and believed they were little bags or 

 utriculi lying contiguous to each other : he coin- 

 pares them to the bubbles on the scum of ferment- 

 ing liquor ; but, although the comparison be correct 



* Mirbel asserts that it is " d'une epaisseur variable selon 

 " la nature particuliere des especes et 1'age des individus." 

 Elemcns de Physiologic vegetate, Partie l ere , p. 28. 



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