18 BOTANY. 
and flowering plants, and give strength and hardness to 
their stems and leaves. 
42. Two varieties of fibrous tissue may be distinguished, 
viz., (1) Bast (Fig. 10, B), and (2) Wood (Fig. 10, .A). The 
fibres of the former are usually thicker walled, more flexi- 
ble, and of greater length than those of the latter. In both 
forms the fibres are sometimes observed to be partitioned. 
A Le a 
Fic. 10.—A, wood-fibres of Silver Maple isolated by Schulze’s maceration; B, 
bast-fibres; b, b, portions of fibres more highly magnified. 
43. Milk Tissue (Laticiferous Tissue).—In many orders 
of flowering plants tissues are found which contain a milky 
or colored fluid—the latex. or the sake of simplicity two 
general forms may be distinguished: (1) that composed of 
simple or branching tubes (Fig. 11), which are scattered 
through the other tissues. As found in the Spurge family, 
they are somewhat simply branched and have very thick 
