Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides and other Crystals. 407 
difference exists throughout the whole of these orders seems so 
unlikely, that nothing short of a complete examination of them 
would be sufficient to establish the truth of this question. 
Meanwhile it may be added that I have found this raphidian 
_ diagnosis never-failing, so far as regards three species of Mesem- 
bryez and ten of Crassulacez and Cactacez, being all the plants 
of these orders growing in my garden and in the windows of 
the neighbouring town. A satisfactory examination of the 
other sections of Ficoideze would be very interesting. In dried 
fragments of Tetragonia, Aizoon, and Sesuvium I saw no ra- 
phides. 
Rubiacee.—The following officinal articles were obtained, by 
the kindness of Mr. Ward, from the most authentic sources :— 
Root of Cephaéhs Ipecacuanha ; five sorts of Cinchona-bark, to 
wit, Red, Yellow, Yellow Petago, Pale, Yellow Carthagena; 
berries of East-Indian, Plantation, and Mocha Coffee. After 
careful examinations, no raphides were found in any of these, 
except in the Ipecacuanha: this root contained a few raphides ; 
and they were seen more plentifully in a fresh leaf of the plant, 
kindly sent by Mr. Moore, the excellent Curator of Chelsea 
Gardens. The officinal root was remarkable (especially its outer 
fleshy part) for an abundance of starch; in the central woody 
part were many long cells full of starch-granules, and it was 
chiefly made up of dotted ducts, like those of Galium Mollugo. 
Of the Cinchone, the pale was the only one consisting of all the 
layers of the bark, and it contained more starch than the others. 
Mr. Moore also favoured me with leaves of Coffea arabica and 
Cinchona calisaya, in neither of which could raphides be found ; 
nor in a twig of Cinchona micrantha, kindly sent, with other 
contributions towards this inquiry, by Mr. Baxter. 
In the British Flora, we have before shown that Rubiacez, 
consisting entirely of herbaceous species, stands as a raphis- 
bearing order closely surrounded by orders devoid of this func- 
tion; while of eight exotic plants, of the section Cinchonacez, 
raphides abound in two herbaceous species, and could not be 
found at all in six woody ones, though spheraphides in Jaxion 
and Gardenia are numerous and beautiful. Subsequently, I 
have examined a few species, both native and foreign, belonging 
to the three orders standing, in Prof. Balfour’s ‘ Mahual,’ on 
either side of Rubiacez, and failed to find raphides in any one 
of these plants, among which were fragments of six species of 
the order Loranthacez and two of Calyceracez, obligingly sup- 
plied, in compliance with my request, by the eminent botanist 
Dr. Hooker. Thus the presence of raphides in the herbaceous 
species and their absence from the woody ones further appear ; 
and hence arises, in this wide and novel subject of the value of 
