14 Objects for the Microscope. 



Some are simple ; some are branched, or star-like, or 

 tufted, and contain simply water : 



Alyssum leaf 

 Draba verna leaf. 

 Antirrhinum calyx. 

 Tradescantia stamen. 

 Verbena. 

 Campanula. 

 Nettle. 

 Borage. 



Chrysophyllum. 



Yerbascum. 



Ivy. 



Hibiscus. 



Deutzia scabra. 



Elseagnus. 



Dolichos (cowage). 



Groundsel. 



Take the hair of a Borage stem or flower off at the base, 

 and lay it on a slide with a drop of water covered with a 

 bit of thin glass, and you will be delighted. The hair of 

 the Nettle, with its poison gland at the base, must be ex- 

 amined in the same way. The pain is caused by the 

 breaking off of its point, and the acrid irritating liquid 

 springing up into the wound. 



The reason why these hairs are mentioned immediately 

 after the cells and cell-contents is, because they are only 

 prolonged and varied cells rising from the cuticle, and when 

 the cell-walls thicken into fibre these hairs become thorns. 

 Sometimes they expand and form scales, as we see on the 

 beautiful leaves of Hippophse and Elseagnus, which are 

 mounted as detached scales for the polariscope, or in situ as 

 opaque objects. 



CUTICLE AND STOMATA. 



The cuticle of plants is that transparent skin which we 

 can easily peel off from various leaves, but especially from 

 the Lily, the Candytuft, Iris, and the petals of flowers ; and 

 prove by examination under a piece of thin glass and with 

 a drop of water that it is really composed of a single layer 

 of cells, having pores, called stomata, thickly scattered 

 over it. 



These slides are very useful to those persons who live 

 in cities, or who have not yet studied plant-life for them- 

 selves ; and I doubt not that they will lead many a careless 



