294 Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides and other Crystals. 
stantly abundant raphis-bearers as others are not so. Veratrum 
nigrum and V. album (roots and young leaf-buds): numerous 
bundles of raphides in delicate hyaline cells; in the leaves also 
a spheraphid tissue, each of the sphzraphides about >}yth and 
its cell 1th of an inch in diameter. Helonias bullata (leaf) : 
raphides very scanty. Colchicum autumnale and Bulbocodium 
vernum: leaves and bulbs destitute of raphides ; but numerous 
faint and minute raphis-like objects, about +,,th of an inch 
long and = 4;sth thick, in roots; no crystals in bulb-seales. 
Tofieldia palustris and T. pubescens: no raphides in leaves or 
roots. 
Commelinacee.—Raphides abundant in the leaves of Trades- 
cantia Virginiea. 
Butomacee.—Roots and subterranean buds of Butomus um- 
bellatus : no raphides; tubers made up chiefly of starch, and 
their pulp ropy and immiscible with water. 
Araliacee.—Subterranean’ stems known as wild or American 
Sarza (Aralia nudicaulis), obtained from Messrs. Butler and 
M‘Culloch: was plentifully studded in the liber and pith with 
spheraphides, averaging ;1,th of an inch in diameter; but 
neither starch nor raphides were seen. Hedera Helix: no ra- 
phides. 
Aurantiacee.—I have seen no raphides in this order; but it 
abounds in crystals about +;sth of an inch long and >,4,th 
broad, as may be well seen in the leaves and petioles of Citrus 
vulgaris, C. decumana, C. Aurantium, and C. myrtifolia; the 
crystals sometimes nearly square, but commonly lozenge-shaped, 
single or double octahedrons, and more rarely twin-formed, like 
the erystals which have been described in many other plants as 
sulphate of lime. 
To Mr. Ward, Mr. De Carle Sowerby, Mr. Cox, and Mr. W. 
H. Baxter I am indebted for generous aid in the prosecution of 
the observations in this paper. The results will be examined 
when a survey is made of the whole series. Meanwhile it may 
be noted that this portion shows different species of one order 
(as Allium and Muscari) growing close together in the very same 
soil of my garden, and yet the former plant as constantly devoid 
of raphides as the latter is pregnant with them—the first three 
orders of Monocotyledones abounding in raphides, which sud- 
denly disappear in the fourth order (Hydrocharidacez) to re- 
appear in the next succeeding one; and the equally curious 
difference in sections of Melanthacese— Veratrum with its swarms 
of raphides, and their deficiency in Colchicum, Bulbocodium, and | 
Tofieldia. Surely such facts are suflicient to show what a vast 
and interesting field of plant-life lies barren to us from want of 
Se eT 
os oe 
