PROJECTING BODIES IX INTERIOR CAVITIES. 117 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OF SOME PROJECTING BODIES IN THE INTERIOR 

 CAVITIES OF PLANTS. 



I HERE make allusion to tv^^o classes of very peculiar 

 bodies vs^hich are found in the ca\"ities of certain plants 

 with loose tissue, and the history of which is little 

 known ; they differ from Raphides both in their form, 

 and because they make an integrant part of the tissue, 

 and are never found floating in the fluids. 



The first kind is composed of star-shaped bodies, dis- 

 covered by Rudolphi, and since well observed by Amici, 

 in the air cavities in the stems and petioles of the 

 Nymphseacege ; they are kinds of stars, with several 

 diverging rays inserted upon the border of the cavity, 

 and projecting into the interior. The form of each ray 

 is conical ; vdder at the base, and stiff. Rudolphi asserts 

 that he has found them in the stalks, petioles, leaves, 

 and even corolla of the Water Lily (Nymphcea). Those 

 of Nymphcea alba have the rays less numerous and 

 longer than those of Nuphar luteum ; they have even 

 been found in the dried plants. The use of these 

 radiating bodies is entirely unknown, but there can be 

 no doubt that they form an integrant part of the tissue. 

 Rudolphi compares them with the hairs which are found 

 in the interior of the pods of some Leguminosae and the 



