THE RAMENTA AND GLANDS OF PLANTS. 69 



the surface ; and when hy a part only, it is the central portion ; and the edges become 

 irregular in outline and crenate. This latter peculiarity has induced a belief in the 

 mind of an acute observer, Dr. "VYillshire, that the crenate scale in the Adelia and the 

 Eleceagnus marks a transition from the simple scale to* the beautiful stellate hairs of 

 which we have just spoken, p. 65. Scurf is commonly met with in plants, and gives 

 a spotted or leprous appearance to the cutis, as may be seen in the pine apple. 



H amenta are thin, scales abundantly found on the backs of the leaves of ferns 

 (Alices), and on the young shoots of many plants. They are slightly foliaceous in 

 their appearance, and not unlike the leaves of some mosses ; but they want the structure, 

 the position, and the leaf-buds of true leaves. Their function, as well as that of scurf, 

 is unknown. 



Glands. We have now to consider a series of organs about which there has been 

 much controversy one party regarding them as reservoirs of secretions and true secreting 

 organs ; and another (represented by M. Schleiden), doubting if such organs can be 

 found in vegetables. M. Schleiden writes : " I have already remarked that I can 

 connect no precise and definite idea with the term gland, as referred to a plant. No 

 attentive observer can avoid seeing how different is life in different cells, whether they 

 are found in different plants or in the same plant, or near each other. It appears to 

 me quite foolish to denominate that cell or that group of cells which contains different 

 matter from its neighbours a gland or organ for secretions; for there are many plants 

 and parts of plants which would then consist only of glands. It is ridiculous to call a 

 cell containing volatile oil a gland, and to refuse the name to one that contains red or 

 yellow colouring matter ; and should we call the last glands, then almost all petals 

 would consist only of glands. The epidermis would be sometimes an epidermis, but 

 sometimes a glandular surface, and with many single cells we should have to admit 

 they are partially glands and partially not so." 



The force of this reasoning will be perceived when we remember that all cells have 

 contents, and that these contents have been secreted or produced within the same cell. 

 Each cell is therefore both a secreting and a containing organ. Again, there is no 

 anatomical structure in vegetables which is peculiar to these organs called glands, as 

 distinct from mere ordinary cells of cellular tissue. In animals, on the contrary, there 

 is in most instances a special glandular structure, and beyond this there is a series of 

 cells called epithelium, to which is confided the duty of producing the larger part of 

 the secretions of the body. These latter offer the nearest points of analogy to the 

 glandular structures of vegetables, 



But whilst admitting that there is a difficulty in defining a gland, there cannot be a 

 doubt as to the existence of certain small hardened masses of cells, which perform the 

 office of glands. Thus the nectarium, on the claw of the petal of the common Ranunculus, 

 secretes a sweet honey-like substance, and is a true gland. So, also, with the glands situate 

 beneath the cuticle, also the base of the pitchers of the Nepenthes and other pitcher 

 plants. These pitchers contain a considerable quantity of water, not from having col- 

 lected it from the air, but from the action of the glands referred to. In the latter 

 instance there is a broad line of distinction between such bodies or glands and that of 

 an ordinary secreting cell ; for whilst in the latter case the secreted matter is retained 

 within the cell, and the quantity corresponds with the size of the cell, in the former 

 the secretion is altogether emitted from the gland, and its quantity is infinitely greater 

 than the size of the organ which produced it. The subject is, however, involved in 

 great obscurity, and it is probable that ere long it will be necessary to exclude such 



