Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides and other Crystals in Plants, 381 



Feb., March, and June 1864. The parts examined anew of the 

 following plants will be noted within brackets. 



Calla j^alustris : [leaf, flower-spike, spathe, and ovaries] all 

 containing raphides. Monstera deliciosa [bits of leaves] : raphides 

 abundant in large, hyaline, viscid cells ; also some sphscraphides, 

 especially in the petioles. Arum maculatum [leaves, berries, and 

 tubers] and leaves and stem oi A.Dracunculus : raphides abound- 

 ing. Colocasia odora, C. antiquorum, and Caladium viviparum 

 [leaves] : raphides plentiful in these three plants. Leaf, scape, 

 and immature fruit of Philodendron giganteum and leaf of P. 

 pertusum : raphides abundant. Richardia cethiopica [leaves] : 

 raphides abundant, and affording a good example of biforines. 

 Diffenbachia maculata [leaves] and leaf, flower-spike, and ovaries 

 of Orontium aquaticum : abounding in raphides. Leaf of Pathos 

 acaulis : raphides and starch plentiful. Leaf-blade and root of 

 Anthurium Harrisii : a few small raphides and many cells con- 

 taining small starch-granules. Leaf of A. coriaceum : small 

 raphides and starch-cells, both scanty ; many sphseraphides in the 

 petiole. Acorus Calamus [leaves and root- stock] and leaves and 

 flower-spike of A. gramineus : true raphides not seen in either 

 of these plants ; only (and that rarely) one or two solitary crys- 

 tal-prisms and crystalline granules. Typha latifolia and T. an- 

 gustifolia [leaves, stem, pith, and root-stock] : raphides rather 

 plentiful. Sparganium ramosum and S. simplex : [leaves, stem, 

 pith, peduncle, style, and outer green part of immature fruit] 

 raphides in all these parts. Lemna [fronds] : all our species 

 afford raphides, which are abundant in L. minor and L. trisulca, 

 and comparatively scanty in L. gibba and L. polyrrhiza. 



Thus, of all the plants yet examined of this order, Acorus is 

 the only genus in which true raphides could not be found ; and 

 yet 1 have often searched for them in A. Calamus at all seasons, 

 and when they were always easily found in such of the other 

 plants as were available for comparison — to wit. Arum, Typha, 

 Sparganium^ and Lemna. The paucity of raphides in Anthurium 

 appears remarkable when we consider their abundance in Pothos 

 and Orontium. 



Now our native plants above mentioned stand, in Prof. 

 Babington's 'Manual of British Botany,' under the orders 

 Typhacese, Aracese, and Lemnacea), and between the orders 

 Alismacese and Potamogetonacese. And while those species of 

 the said three orders, Typhacese, Aracese, and Lemnacese, with 

 the single exception of A. Calamus, regularly afford raphides, 

 the EngHsh species of the two neighbouring orders, Alismacese 

 and Potamogetonacese, are as regularly devoid of raphides. But 

 Prof. Lindley, in his admirable ' School Botany,' places Acorus 

 in a distinct order, Acoraccse, between Juncacca) and Juncagi- 



