182 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY 
Make a transverse section of the lemon, not more than a fifth of 
the way down from the stigma end and note: 
(1) The thick skin, pale yellow near the outside, white within. 
(2) The more or less wedge-shaped divisions containing the juicy 
pulp of the fruit. These are the matured cells of the ovary; count 
these. 
(3) The thin partition between the cells. 
(4) The central column or axis of white pithy tissue. 
(5) The location and attachment of any seeds that may be 
encountered in the section. 
Make a sketch to illustrate these points, comparing it with 
Fig. 141. 
Study the section with the magnifying glass and note the little 
spherical reservoirs near the outer part of the skin, which contain the 
oil of lemon which gives to lemon peel its characteristic smell and 
taste. Cut with a razor a thin slice from the surface of a lemon 
peel, some distance below the section, and at once examine the 
freshly cut surface with a magnifying glass to see the reservoirs, 
still containing oil, which, however, soon evaporates. On the cut 
surface of the pulp (in the original cross-section) note the tubes in 
which the juice is contained. These tubes are not cells, but their 
walls are built of cells. Cut a fresh section across the lemon about 
midway of its length and sketch it, bringing out the same points 
which were shown in the previous one. The fact that the number 
of ovary cells in the fruit corresponds with the number of minute 
knobs in the depression at its base is due to the fact that these 
knobs mark the points at which fibro-vascular bundles passed from 
the peduncle into the cells of the fruit, carrying the sap by which 
the growth of the latter was maintained. 
Note the toughness and thickness of the seed-coats. Taste the 
kernel of the seed. 
Cut a very thin slice from the surface of the skin, mount in 
water, and examine with a medium power of the microscope. 
Sketch the cellular structure shown and compare it with the sketch 
of the corky layer of the bark of the potato tuber. 
Of what use to the fruit is a corky layer in the skin? (See 
Sect. 243 for further questions.) 
