112 Hairs of Plants. 



a penknife, can be placed in a drop of water, and examined 

 with a quarter or a fifth as transparent objects. 



A young green pod of a sweet pea is another good object. 

 To the naked eye it is obviously hairy, and when a strong light 

 is thrown upon it, and it is viewed with a three-inch objective, 

 the effect is very fine ; each hair is seen to rise from what looks 

 like a little globe of crystal, which flashes in the light, and 

 contrasts beautifully with the bright green cells of the peascod. 

 When we take off a little piece of the cuticle with its adherent 

 hairs, and view it with a power of one or two hundred linear, 

 we find that what looked like little transparent globes under 

 the lower objective, are delicate, somewhat conical elevations, 

 composed of many transparent cells, and surmounted each by a 

 long hair. 



Another superb low power object may be found in the under 

 surface of a foxglove leaf, thickly set with jointed hairs, 

 amongst which little insects roam, as larger animals do in forest 

 glades. 



Our next object of this class shall be selected from an old- 

 fashioned plant, easily obtained, and whose sweet scent pre- 

 serves its place as a common, favourite — we mean lavender. 

 Take a fresh clean leaf of this plant and shave off a little of the 

 down on its surface with a razor or sharp knife. Place the 

 down on a slide in a drop of water, cover with thin glass, and 

 magnify about sixty linear. The hairs are then seen to be 

 beautifully branched in star patterns. With polarized light and 

 selenite object-holder they are elegant objects, lit up with 

 rose and purple light when the prisms are in one position, 

 and shining like silver when they are in another. These hairs 

 are well worth mounting in glycerine jelly or some such 

 material. 



Exquisite stellate hairs, strengthened with asilicious deposit, 

 are found on the leaves of the Deutzia gracilis, a common green- 

 house plant, covered with graceful white flowers in the spring. 

 They are admirable polariscopic objects, not as well known as 

 the leaves of the D. scabra, which is less frequently met with 

 and scarcely more interesting. A piece of the leaf should be 

 mounted in glycerine jelly, or any fluid good for the preserva- 

 tion of vegetable tissues. The effect of polarized light on this 

 object is to give it the appearance of stars formed of coloured 

 gems on a richly tinted ground. 



It is very common to find hairs on plants swollen into little 

 globes at their tops, and containing a special coloured secretion. 

 Hairs of this description are called glandular, and they often form 

 objects of remarkable beauty. If the flower of the common snap- 

 dragon [Antirrhinum niajus) is torn open, groups of yellow tipped 

 hairs will be seen on the inside of the corolla. These should first 



