CRYSTALS IN PLANTS. 



235 



crystals will be principally prismatic, and are arranged as 

 if they were beginning to assume a stellate form. Some 

 plants, as many of the cactus 

 tribe, are made up almost 

 entirely of raphides. In 

 some instances every cell of 

 the cuticle contains a stel- 

 late mass of crystals ; in 

 others the whole interior is 

 full of them, rendering the 

 plant so exceedingly brittle, 

 that the least touch will 

 occasion a fracture ; so much 

 so, that some specimens of 

 Cactus senilis, said to be a 

 thousand years old, which 

 were sent a few years since 

 to Kew from South America, 

 were obliged to be packed 



, , .,, -,, , Fig. 141. Siliceous cuticle from under 



in COtton, With all the Care surface of leaf of Deutzia scabra. 



of the most delicate jewel- 

 lery, to preserve them during transport. 



Raphides, of peculiar figure, are common in the bark of 

 many trees. In the Hiccory 

 (Gary a alba) may be ob- 

 served masses of flattened 

 prisms having both extre- 

 mities pointed. In vertical 

 sections from the stem of 

 Elceagnus angwtifolia, nu- 

 merous raphides of large size 

 are embedded in the pith. 

 Raphides are also found in 

 the bark of the apple-tree, 

 and in the testa of the seeds 

 of the elm ; every cell con- 

 tains two or more very 

 minute crystals. 



In figs. 141 and 142 we 



have other representations Fig. 142. SiKc> cuticle of Grass 

 of the crystalline structure (PAanu cristatus). 



