AXATOISrY OF PLANTS. 175 



A. On Cellular Tcaiure. 



272. 



What we call cellular texture in plants is, no doubt, when 

 it is regular, somewhat similar to the cells of bees ; but 

 it is distinguished from them by the direction of the cells, 

 and especially by this, that it seems to be as frequently void 

 of all regularitv, or to be fashioned in a quite different 

 manner. 



Where the cellular texture is present in a regular form, it 

 consists of spaces, which, when cut in a longitudinal and cross 

 direction, display six sides and six angles, and the entire cir- 

 cumference of which resembles a dodecahedron. These 

 spaces are chiefly distinguished from the cells of bees, by 

 being more drawn out in length. There is, however, another 

 form of the cellular texture, which seems to be more primi- 

 tive than this. That is, the vesicular or spherical, which 

 seems to arise from the juxtaposition of the primitive sphe- 

 rulae. It is easily conceivable that from this juxtaposition 

 interstices must remain, which, indeed, we see distinctly 

 enough, and which sometimes seem destined to serve im- 

 portant purposes in the future history of the plant. 



The spherical cells become angular, when their sides touch 

 and attract each other in several points. Tliat a figure pre- 

 cisely hexangular should be formed from a circle, is partly a 

 consequence of the effort to be regular, which is the more 

 conspicuous in imperfect organic bodies, the nearer they ap- 

 proach to the productions of the unorganised world, whence 

 regular crystals appear in the products of certain Fungi and 

 Sponges ; and partly it arises from this, that the hexangular 

 form is, next to the circle, that which includes the greatest 

 space, with the smallest extension of its circumference. We 

 often see the spaces which remain between tlie cells, after 

 their form is thus completely changed, filled with peculiar 

 juices, and often these interstices supply the place of tubes, 

 and conduct the unprepared sap upwards. 



