THE CONNECTIVE TISSUES. 81 



ligaments, in which the bundles of fibres run in various directions. 

 They present a structural transition between the fibrous arrange- 

 ment in ligaments and tendons and that in the more open varieties 

 of areolar tissue. The fibres of these tissues are mostly of the 

 white variety, but in some situations, notably in the ligamentum 

 nuchse, they are chiefly of the elastic variety. 



Reticular tissue may be regarded as a special modification of 

 areolar tissue, in which the main bulk of the tissue consists of a 

 series of freely intercommunicating lymph-spaces. These are often 

 densely crowded with lymphoid cells, among which the lymph 

 slowly circulates, thereby being subjected to the modifying influ- 

 ences of their activities. 



