CRYSTALS IN THE CELLS OF PLANTS, 69 



cellulose, between the molecules of which those of the lime have been deposited. The 

 :ystoliths originate (in Ficus elastica on Schacht's authority, in Broussonetia from my 

 )wn observation) as wart-like outgrowths from the inner side of the cell-wall, which 

 len swell up into a club-shaped form at their free end, and become impregnated with 

 Ime. After the lime has been dissolved and solution of iodine added, it is seen that 

 the surface of the cystolith is coated with a thin protoplasmic membrane in which the 

 [original sculpture of the whole can still be perfectly made out. 



[M^Nab gives (Journal of Botany, new series, vol. I. p. 33) for the composition of the 

 potassium chlorate solution : three grains of potassium chlorate dissolved in two drachms of 

 nitric acid of sp. gr. iio. The preparation of ' Schultz's solution' is thus described by_ Schacht 

 (The Microscope and its application to vegetable anatomy and physiology, translated by F. Currey, 

 p. 43) : Zinc is dissolved in hydrochloric acid ; the solution is allowed to evaporate under contact 

 with metallic zinc, until it attains the thickness of a syrup ; the syrup is then saturated with 

 potassium iodide, the iodine added, and the solution, when necessar}', diluted with water. For the 

 'iodine-solution' the same authority recommends one grain of iodine and three grains of potassium 

 iodide in one ounce of distilled water.] 



