THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 355 



clicks not touch the question of glands in his exhaustive monograph on 

 the Plumbaginacew in De Candolle's Prodromus, freely utilized 

 by me in compiling the foregoing remarks. No mention is made of 

 the glands in Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum. Nor is there 

 in any author among the many that I have consulted any 

 special mention of the structure and varieties of these glands. The 

 contribution of Dr. "Wilson, therefore, is a distinct advance 

 upon the previous knowledge of the morphology of the Plum- 

 baginetB ; he therefore deserves the gratitude of every special 

 student of this order for his elaborate researches. " The study of the 

 vegetative organs of any member of the family " (Plumbaginece)) says 

 he, " is not proceeded far when one finds studded over the leaves, stem, 

 &c, sunk oval or circular glands with characteristically cruciform dia- 

 metrical partitions." They possess, what Dr. Wilson calls the 

 " chalk-secreting " function, to which are due the mineral substances 

 known as " chalk-scales" secreted by certain species of the Plumbaginece. 

 Mettenius having described and figured these glands, Dr. Wilson calls 

 them, for the sake of brevity, Mettenian glands (glands of Mettenius), 

 and as such they will be referred to in the following observations. 

 The structure of these glands may be given as follows, as described 

 by Maury and quoted in the original French quotation cited by 

 Dr. Wilson*: 



11 The primitive or mother cell is divided mainly into four simple 

 cells each of which latter is a secretory cell. Their product (or secre- 

 tion) is stored up in the intercellular space and is thrown out (or 

 excreted) in consequence of the tension of the cells lying close to the 

 lower part." 



These glands, observes Dr. Wilson, in general " occur in longitu- 

 dinal depressions on the stems of Plumbagos giving rise to a striated 

 appearance when calcium carbonate is secreted." They are also present 

 " on the leaves and bracts of all and sepals of many of the species of 

 * * * Plumbago * * * examined." They also occur on the cotyledons 

 of the genus Plumbago, besides those of several other genera of the 

 Plumbaginece) " even before the light is reached by the germinating 

 seedlings." (Wilson, p. 240, op. cit.) I have often observed a 



* Translated by me with the assistance of Mr. J. Mittra, Barrisfcer-at-Law, Nag- 

 pore. 



