THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



259 



sess neurites, which lie in the same plane with the arborescent 

 dendrites of the cells of Purkinje, and send collaterals to end in a 

 basket-work of teleneiirites applied to the bodies of the cells of 

 Purkinje. The terminal teleneiirites of these stellate cells also end 

 in the same situation. Other smaller collaterals extend toward the 

 surface of the cerebellar lamina. 



The granular layer of the gray matter also contains two varieties 

 of nerve-cells : the " small stellate cells," which are most numerous, 

 and the " large stellate cells." 



Fig. 242. 



Section of a cerebellar lamina parallel to its axis. (R. y Cajal.) A, molecular layer of the 

 gray matter; B, granular layer; C, white substance; a, small stellate cell of the granular 

 layer, from which a neurite enters the molecular layer, where it bifurcates, sending 

 branches throughout the length of the lamina; 6, bifurcation of one of these neurites; 

 e, slightly bulbous termination of one of the neuritic branches ; d, body of a cell of Pur- 

 kinje seen in profile ; /, neurite of a cell of Purkinje. 



The small stellate cells (Fig. 241, g, and Fig. 242, a) are scat- 

 tered throughout the granular layer, and it is owing to the abun- 

 dance of their nuclei that this layer has received that name. Their 

 dendrites are few in number and short, but their neurites are very 

 long. They extend perpendicularly into the molecular layer, where 

 they bifurcate, the branches lying parallel with the axis of the 

 cerebellar lamina and its surface. These fibres appear to run the 

 whole length of the lamina, and to come in contact with the tele- 

 dendrites of the cells of Purkinje, to the planes of which they run 

 perpendicularly. They are thought to coordinate the action of a 

 long series of the cells of Purkinje. 



