STRUCTURE OF PLANTS. 51 



fabrics are prepared in the West Indian Islands, without 

 spinning or weaving, from the bass of the Lace-tree, (Palo 

 di laghetto of the Spaniards), and in Tahiti from the 

 Paper-mulberry. 



An endless variety of plants are used for cordage, for 

 almost every country applies its own plants to this purpose. 

 By the kindness of a friend in Berlin, I once obtained 

 a little piece of string, which had been tied round a 

 wine-vase in Pompeii, and I found to my astonishment, 

 that it had been prepared from the easily recognizable 

 bass cells of the Silk-plant fAsclepias SyriacaJ which 

 so far as we know, are now nowhere applied to this use. 



Cotton, which forms a hairy down around the seeds 

 of the cotton-plant, is very different from these bass-fibres. 

 It is, indeed, also composed of long cells, but these have 

 very thin walls, whence, when dried, they collapse into a 

 flat band with rather rounded borders, while the bass-fibres 

 form a perfectly smooth, thick cylindrical filament, (PL i, 

 Fig. 9.) By this distinction, which is decided enough, 

 we are enabled by the microscope, to perceive in a moment 

 the mixture of cotton with linen ; and by this means, even 

 the origin of the fabrics in which the Egyptian mummies 

 are rolled, has been distinctly shown. We may here 

 remark, by the way, that the fibre of wool, (PI. I, Fig. 11,) 

 and the fine filament of the silk-worm, (PL I, Fig. 10,) 

 exhibit equally striking characteristics, as a glance at the 

 engraving at once shows, and the microscope is perhaps 

 really the only perfectly certain means by which every 

 mixture of these various filaments, in textile fabrics, may 

 be immediately detected. 



We have now seen how the simple cell, in its various forms, 

 is the basis of every plant, in all the multiformity of their 

 appearances ; but what makes the matter infinitely more 



