FLOWER-LAND. 



(2) Now suppose you have a lot of cells placed 

 together, like a single layer of eggs upon a table, and 

 which have grown together, so that they form a thin 

 sheet or skin of cells. There is just such a skin or 

 tissue of cells covering the surface of the parts of 

 plants, and enclosing the other tissues within it* It 

 is, therefore, called the epidermal > tissue, or simply 

 the epidermis t ; and it generally consists of a single 

 layer of cells, as I have described it. The outside 



walls of the epidermal 

 cells are more or less 

 thickened and hardened, 

 and grow together so as 

 to form the surface skin 

 or outside wall, which is 

 called the cuticle. % You 

 can see a picture of the 

 epidermis and its cuticle 

 in Fig. 151. Try if you 

 can distinguish it in a 

 thickish leaf, or some 

 herbaceous stem ; or try 

 for it upon an onion 

 bulb. In the stems and 

 shoots of shrubs and trees, the green and tender 



Fig. 151. Leaf stalk of a Begonia 

 cut across (transverse section). 

 t, epidermis ; r, cuticle (magni- 

 fied 550 times). 



* Yet the stigma is not covered over, you remember (p. 128), as there 

 is a channel down it into the ovary ; and there are the little openings 

 or mouths which are found upon leaves (p. 25). 



f From the Greek "<?/?'," upon, and "derma" skin. 



From the Latin (cutis), " cuticula" the outermost skin. 



