36 STOMATA OF PLANTS. 



place for vegetating in the subjacent vegetable 

 tissue, when favourable atmospheric circum- 

 stances, neatly designated by a foreign philo- 

 sopher, " cosmica momenta,'''' call them forth. 



As some of the readers of these remarks 

 may never have seen these beautiful organs 

 called stomata in the vegetable structure, 

 whose functions are so indispensable to the life 

 of the plant, it may be proper here to mention 

 the simplest method of obtaining a knowledge 

 of their character by actual observation. 

 They are found in the leaves of all vegetables, 

 and in the stems of the gramineous tribes, in- 

 cluding every sort of British corn plant. They 

 also occur in their leaves. They are small 

 spaces which lie between the sides of the cells 

 in the cellular tissue, and open into intercel- 

 lular cavities in that part of the tissue lying 

 beneath them. Stomata, the plural of o-To/jia, 

 (stoma,) a mouth, is an appropriate name. 

 When seen with a good microscope, their 

 appearance is most interesting. They form 

 apertures for the purposes mentioned, and 

 these apertures are closed or opened by little 

 elastic vesicles, whereby their action is beau- 

 tifully regulated. The naked eye can never 

 detect them, but under a good microscope no 



