FLOWERING PLANTS OP THE GREEN LANES. 



255 



obtain a correct knowledge of the natural classifica- 

 tion of plants. Professor Gulliver, a well-known and 

 distinguished botanist, has shown that many plants 

 are related by the crystals formed in various parts of 

 their tissues. These crystals, on account of their 

 being usually needle-shaped, are called 



Fig. 193, 



Kiiphidcs: a, in the ovule of Fuchsia; 6, in ;\ cell from the berry of 

 Fuchsia ; c, from the berry of Arum maculatum ; d, from the leaf of 

 Ncottia spiralis ; e, loose from the berry of Tamus communis ; /, in 

 an intercellular space of an old frond of Lemna trisulca (Duckweed). 

 All moderately magnified. 



(Fig. 193) ; and one group distinguished by other 

 peculiarities goes by the name of sphxr aphides. Both 

 these groups of plant crystals may be seen with a 

 good student's microscope. Professor Gulliver re- 

 commended, as a way to find these crystals in the 

 plants known to bear them, to scrape and mash to a 

 pulp a bit of the leaf, or any other part of the plant, 

 in a drop of water on the object-slide of the 

 microscope ; this pulp should then be pressed with n 



