SECT. II. 



THE PULP. 319 



force, the hexagon then assumed an elongated ap- 

 pearance. The partitions of the cells were found to 

 be extremely thin and transparent, and their organi- 

 zation too fine to be distinguished even by the 

 highest magnifiers. But they were generally per- 

 forated with holes or pores, whose diameters seemed 

 to be less than the three hundredth part of a line, 

 forming the medium of communication between 

 the different cells, and bordered with a sort of small 

 and glandular ring. The whole of the tissue was 

 extremely delicate, but particularly in the several 

 parts of the flower the petals, stamens, and pistils, 

 where the slightest touch stained it, and the 

 slightest pressure destroyed it. It was also speedily 

 destroyed by maceration in water. If the cells 

 happened to be empty it was transparent and colour- 

 less, but if filled with juice it was generally green, 

 though sometimes brown, yellow, or red, commu- 

 nicating its acquired colour to the epidermis, 

 whether in the leaves, petals, or other parts of the 

 plant.* 



Such are the accounts of the most distinguished 

 vegetable anatomists upon the subject of the struc- 

 ture of the pulp. Their descriptions, as in the case 

 of the epidermis, do not indeed exactly correspond. 

 But the reason is sufficiently obvious. They did 

 not all study it in the same state, nor even in its 

 most perfect state namely, that of complete insula- 

 tion, as in the pulp of fruits ; but rather in a state 

 * Traite d'Anat. et de Phys. Veget. vol. i. p. 56, 



