Prof. G. GoUiver on Raphides. 59 



of nature, are more easily explicable. Thus when, under the 

 article " Raphides " in the last edition of the valuable * Micro- 

 graphic Dictionary/ we are told that there are few of the higher 

 plants which do not contain them, and that they abound in 

 £uphorbiace8e, Cactacex, and Polygonaces, and in the roots of 

 Umbelliferae and the sepals of Geraniacee and Orchidaces, it is 

 certain that sphaeraphides and other crystals are confounded 

 with raphides, and that these last are by no means limited to 

 the calyx in Orchidacese. Of £uphorbiaceie my examinations 

 have been confined to our indigenous species, in which I have 

 not yet seen bundles of raphides, and suppose that the starch* 

 sticks in the latex of this order ('Annals,' March 1862) may 

 have been originally described by Rafn as saline crystals, and 

 the error often copied since ; but with his obsaratkms I am 

 only acquainted at second hand. And while spbaeraphides and 

 other crystals are so common in our trees and shrubs, I have 

 never found these plants characterized by raphides ; so that this 

 department alone still affords an interesting field of research*. 

 Again, the minute single crystals which 1 have described in the 

 ovaries of British Composit» and in the leaves of Geniiana 

 aeauIU arc not true raphides. As to systematic botany, the 

 value of raphides as natural characters seems never to have been 

 at all recognized, — certainly not in our best English works. 

 Nor indeed was it likely to be while the statements of Schleiden 

 and others, already aliudt'd to, remained current ; and the pau- 

 city, confusion, and uncertainty of the facts made them utterly 

 insufficient and unavailable for the purpose. And this is the 

 more remarkable after such an illustrious botanist as Lindlcy 

 (Intr. to Bot. 3rd ed.), with the excellent assistance of Edwin 

 Quekctt, had long since perceived the interest of raphides in 

 connexion with organography, and pointed out their presence in 

 eertain Nyctaginacese, Orchidaoese, and Aracese. 



Of the practical appUcations a few more instinctive examples 

 may be added. In gardening operations, I have always found 

 it easy, and often very useful, to pick out, simply by the raphi- 

 dian character, seedlings of the many exotic Onagracese, now so 

 commonly cultivated, from seedlings of other orders. And some 



• If our Societies would offer prizes to yoong penons for inquiries of 

 this kind, instead of temptations to the extirps^on of our rare native 

 plants, some good might result ; for numerous oMerratioiu with a definite 

 aim. and such as mav be easily made with a cheap microtcope, are much 

 required ; and they are calculated to elevate the taste to a perception of 

 the irajwrtance of the life of the plant-cell, and to open a wide field of 

 rational aniusement and instruction for families in the country. As to 

 species, those of such genera as Carex and Salix, Rosa and Rubus, would 

 be well fitted to try the knowledge and industry of student*. 



