684 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



it is attached to a second coating, which is brown, porous, and dull, 

 and is incorporated with it. Beneath a hollow, which separates these 

 two integuments, is a third, brown, veined, warted and glossy 

 covering, traversed by numerous fibres, inider which lies the albumen, 

 which forms the vegetable ivory. The vegetable xvotj is of the 

 purest white, and free from veins, dots, or vessels of any kind, pre- 

 senting a perfect uniformity of texture, surpassing the finest animal 

 ivory ; and its substance is everywhere so hard, that the slightest 

 streaks from the tu.rning-lathe are observable, and cannot be erased 

 till it is newly fashioned. 



" When the article is carved, the vegetable ivory may be 

 known by its brightness, and by its fatty appearance, whereon the 

 well-skilled may discern the minute lines which are the beds of cells. 

 Its structure would almost seem to shoAv more analogy with bone 

 than with ivory, but a microscopic investigation quickly proves that 

 vegetable ivory possesses an entirely different structure. 



" This structure is among the most curiou.s in the Vegetable 

 Kingdom. 



" The external covering of the albumen is composed, as we pro- 

 ceed from the outside to the inside, of — 



' 1. A layer of ovoid cellules, with brown thick parietes, 

 the elongated centre of each cellule is filled with a darker 

 substance. 



'II. A second laj^^er of ovoid cells, placed perpendicularly 

 on the first, but with the innermost elongated, and approximat- 

 ing towards the structure of the next layer. 



' III. A third layer of cells, still more elongated and fusi- 

 form, their parietes are thick and brown. 



'IV. A fourth layer of smaller and prismatic cells, placed 

 perpendicularly and regularly over the preceding layer : they 

 rest in their turn upon the last, which is 



' V. A final layer of very dark and irregular cells, exter- 

 nally coated, on the side towards the albumen, .with a brown 

 colouring matter, which imparts its hue to the surface of the 

 albumen, or vegetable ivory.' 

 " All the above-described organization belongs on\j to the integu- 

 mentary system. 



" The albumen, or vegetable ivory itself, is composed of con- 

 centric layers, of which only the most external differ from the most 

 internal. When the albumen is hard, as was that which I examined, ■ 

 it presents a white substance, transparent in water, and which 

 appeal's continuous, and not to be distinguished into various degrees 

 of growth. It is perforated with an infinity of holes, the sections 

 of so many cavities ; the latter are irregularly rounded and also 

 prolonged into arms or tubes, which give a starry appearance 

 to the cavities, many of them being 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10-rayed. 



