338 COMPOSITE ORGANS. CHAP. IT. 



interlaced together, so as to form a firm and com- 

 pact body in the matured layers ; and thus corre- 

 sponding exactly to the description given of them 

 by Grew and Malpighi, in which the longitudinal 

 fibres are compared to the warp, and the transverse 

 fibres to the woof of a web. 



SUBSECTION IV. 



Composed Vegetable Fibre. In plants that are purely her- 

 still small- baceous, and in the herbaceous parts of woody 

 plants, it has been seen that the stem or other 

 herbaceous part, is furnished with a number of 

 notable and often insulated fibres passing longitu- 

 dinally throughout its whole extent, as in the stipe 

 of Aspidium FilLv-mas, or leaf-stalk of the Elder. 

 These fibres, when viewed superficially, appear to 

 be merely individuals, but when inspected minutely 

 and under the microscope, they prove to be groups 

 or bundles of fibres smaller and minuter still, 

 firmly cemented together, and forming in the ag- 

 gregate a strong and elastic thread ; but capable 

 being split into a number of component fibres, ti 

 at last you can divide them no longer. 

 The longi- The same is the case with the longitudinal fibres 

 fibres be- composing the net-work of the layers both of the 



& 



; 



stron^st bark aild wood > as wel1 as with the fibres f tne 

 divergent layers, by which those of the concentric 

 layers are crossed ; which last two indeed are not 



