510 Prof. G. Gulliver on Raphides. 
are important. They show that true raphides may consist either 
of phosphate of lime, of oxalate of lime, or of oxalate of lime 
and magnesia, and that a minute portion of vegetable matter 
probably forms a part of the raphis: besides, they tend to con- 
firm the accuracy of Prof. D. Maclagan’s analysis of the raphides 
of Richardia ; for this plant belongs to Aracez, and now Dr. 
Davy, quite independently, finds that the raphides’ of Colocasia, 
another plant of the same order, are also composed of oxalate 
of lime. As to the exact relation of the vegetable to the mineral 
part of the raphis, whether forming the intertexture and frame 
of its substance, like the animal cartilage of bone, or a mere 
pellicle, according to Payen and others, or an appearance only, 
produced by contact of the plant-juice with the saline crystal, 
further observations would be very interesting. 
Nyctayinacee.—Raphides in the seed-leaves and spermoderm, 
and very numerous in the tap-root and leaves, of Mirabilis. 
Smilacee.— Fresh sprig and leaf of Smilax Sarsaparilla, and 
leafless twig of S. aspera, from Mr. Sowerby: the former abound- 
ing in raphides; and the latter with numerous bundles of them 
in the young leaf-buds and a few in the liber. Thus, as was 
expected from the quantity of raphides in the officinal root, they 
abound in other parts. of Smilax*. 
Commelinacee.— Raphides abundant in the roots and leaves of 
Commelina celestis and Tradescantia virginica, though not to be 
found in the British species of Alisma and Butomus belonging 
to the orders next following Commelinacee. Thus, though the 
external appearance of the tubers of Commelina and Butomus is 
similar, they may be immediately distinguished ; and the viscid 
juice of the latter, when let out, being coagulable by and im- 
miscible with water, is another foes difference. 
Aracee.—Raphides abounding in the green part and pale 
spots of the leaf of Dieffenbachia maculata, and in the leaf of 
Colocasia antiquorum. In these plants the raphis-cells are elon- 
gated and pointed at the ends, quite unlike the short neighbour- 
ing cells—thus also unlike the raphidian cells of C. odora, figured 
by Prof. Balfour, though projecting, as shown by that eminent 
botanist, into the central intercellular spaces of the petiole. 
Acorus Calamus: this is not a raphis-bearing plant. 
Persistency of the raphis-bearing character—We have before 
* As Dr. Davy finds the raphides of the root to consist of phosphate 
of lime, and considering the profusion also of starch in the Jamaica and 
Honduras samples from Apothecaries’ Hall, no wonder that a course of 
such Sarzz should be so efficacious in certain cachexies, while it might be 
rationally suggested that the same drug would likewise be useful in those 
sad and intractable diseases of infants which are connected with imperfect 
autrition and a deficiency of phosphate of lime in the bones. 
