B94 Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides and other Crystals. 



stantly abundant raphis-bearers as others are not so. Veratrum 

 nigrum and V. album (roots and young leaf-buds) : numeroiis 

 bundles of raphides in delicate hyaline cells ; in the leaves also 

 a sphseraphid tissue, each of the sphaeraphides about iroTrth and 

 its cell -a-To^h of an inch in diameter. Helonias bullata (leaf) : 

 raphides very scanty, Colchicum autumnale and Bulbocodium 

 vernum : leaves and bulbs destitute of raphides ) but numerous 

 faint and minute raphis-like objects, about , ^\ o th of an inch 

 long and .^400 o ^h thick, in roots ; no crystals in bulb-scales. 

 Tofieldia palustris and T. pubescens : no raphides in leaves or 

 roots. 



CommelinacecE. — Raphides abundant in the leaves of Trades- 

 cantia Virginica. 



ButomacecE. — Roots and subterranean buds of Butomus um- 

 bellatus : no raphides ; tubers made up chiefly of starch, and 

 their pulp ropy and immiscible with water. 



Araliacea. — Subterranean stems known as wild or American 

 Sarza [Aralia nudicaulis), obtained from Messrs. Butler and 

 M'CuIloch : was plentifully studded in the liber and pith with 

 sphaeraphides, averaging ^w^h of an inch in diameter; but 

 neither starch nor raphides were seen. Hedera Helix : no ra- 

 phides. 



AurantiacecE. — I have seen no raphides in this order ; but it 

 abounds in crystals about -i-oVoth of an inch long and ^7^ 7 th 

 broad, as may be well seen in the leaves and petioles of Citrus 

 vulgaris) C. decumana, C. Aurantium, and C. myrtifolia ; the 

 crystals sometimes nearly square, but commonly lozenge-shaped, 

 single or double octahedrons, and more rarely twin-formed, like 

 the crystals which have been described in many other plants as 

 sulphate of lime. 



To Mr. Ward, Mr. De Carle Sowerby, Mr. Cox, and Mr. W. 

 H. Baxter I am indebted for generous aid in the prosecution of 

 the observations in this paper. The results will be examined 

 when a survey is made of the whole series. Meanwhile it may 

 be noted that this portion shows different species of one order 

 (as Allium and Muscari) growing close together in the very same 

 soil of my garden, and yet the former plant as constantly devoid 

 of raphides as the latter is pregnant with them — the first three 

 orders of Monocotyledones abounding in raphides, which sud- 

 denly disappear in the fourth order (Hydrocharidacese) to re- 

 appear in the next succeeding one; and the equally curious 

 difference in sections of Melanthacese — Veratrum with its swarms 

 of raphides, and their deficiency in Colchicum, Bulbocodium, and 

 Tofieldia. Surely such facts are sufficient to show what a vast 

 and interesting field of plant-life lies barren to us from want of 



