16 THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



Groundsel. The common garden Verbena has the mouth 

 of its corolla closed by a dense row of beaded hairs pro- 

 tecting its pistil. I cannot describe more, but look at these. 

 Some are simple ; some are branched, or star-like, or tufted, 

 and contain simply water : 



Alyssum leaf. 

 Draba verna leaf. 

 Antirrhinum calyx. 

 Tradescantia stamen. 

 Verbena. 

 Campanula. 

 Nettle. 

 Borage. 



Chrysophyllum. 

 Verbascum. 



Ivy- 

 Hibiscus. 

 Deutzia scabra. 

 Elseagnus. 

 Dolichos (cowage). 

 Groundsel. 



Take the hair of a Borage stem or flower off at the base, 

 and lay it on a slide with a drop of water covered with a 

 bit of thin glass, and you will be delighted. The hair of the 

 Nettle, with its poison gland at the base, must be examined 

 in the same way. The pain is caused by the breaking off 

 of its point, and the acrid irritating liquid springing up 

 into the wound. 



The reason why these hairs are mentioned immediately 

 after the cells and cell-contents is, because they are only pro- 

 longed and varied cells rising from the cuticle, and when 

 the cell-walls thicken into fibre these hairs become thorns. 

 Sometimes they expand and form scales, as we see on the 

 beautiful leaves of Hippophse and Elseagnus, which are 

 mounted as detached scales for the polariscope, or in situ as 

 opaque objects. 



CUTICLE AND STOMATA. 



The cuticle of plants is that transparent skin which we 

 can easily peel off from various leaves, but especially from 

 the Lily, the Candytuft, Iris, and the petals of flowers ; and 

 prove by examination under a piece of thin glass and with 

 a drop of water that it is really composed of a single layer 

 of cells, having pores, called stomata, thickly scattered 

 over it. 



