134 PROSERPINA. 



munication between tlie cells of the pith, I conclude 

 that the sap they are filled with is taken up by them, and 

 used to construct their own thickening tissue. 



15. Next, I take Balfour's ' Structural Botany,' and by 

 his index, under the word ' Pith,' am referred to his 

 articles 8, 72, and 75. In article 8, neither the word 

 pith, nor any expression alluding to it, occurs. 



In article 72, the stem of an outlaid tree is defined as 

 consisting of 'pith, fibre-vascular and* woody tissue, 

 medullary rays, bark, and epidermis.' 



A more detailed statement follows, illustrated by a 

 figure surrounded by twenty-three letters namely, two 

 J s, three c s, four e s, three f&, one Z, four m s, three p s, 

 one r, and two vs. 



Eighteen or twenty minute sputters of dots may, with 

 a good lens, be discerned to proceed from this alphabet, 

 and to stop- at various points, or lose themselves in the 

 texture, of the represented wood. And, knowing now 

 something of the matter beforehand, guessing a little 

 more, and gleaning the rest with my finest glass, I 

 achieve the elucidation of the figure, to the following 

 extent, explicable without letters at all, by my more sim- 

 ple drawing, Figure 25. 



16. (1) The inner circle full of little cells, diminishing 

 in size towards the outside, represents the pith, ' very 

 large at this period of the growth' (the first year, we 



* ' Or woody tissue,' suggests A. It is ' and ' in Balfour. 



