776 | Microscopic Crystals contained in Plants. [November, _ 
constantly together, rarely being seen twenty feet apart. He is 
as gallant in the defence of his mate as ever. But the other day 
I picked up the female to examine more closely the red por- 
tion of the head when a vigorous thrust of his sharp beak as he 
flew at me admonished me that he thought I was taking unwar- 
rantable liberties, and the attack was followed up with great 
vigor till I got the whip and tickled him smartly about the head, 
when he retreated in tolerable order. In the mean time the 
female had got quite a way off, which no doubt he thought a 
- good excuse for the discontinuance of the attack. 
word about the color of these birds. One of the females 
when they came into my grounds had two white feathers on the 
back, which have proved constant ever since. All the others are 
of the regulation blue of the species. I think Audubon would 
have admitted that a ten year old bird was no longer young, and 
would have despaired of ever seeing it turn into a white Grus 
canadensis. 
20: 
ON THE MICROSCOPIC CRYSTALS CONTAINED IN 
PLANTS. 
BY W. K. HIGLEY. 
[ Concluded from October number.] 
I shall now take up the species of the family Vitaceæ and in 
these a wider view of crystals will be presented. 
This family gives us a good field for the examination of both 
_ raphides and spheraphides in the same plants. In all the species 
that I have examined the raphides were the most abundant in the 
leaves with their appendages, the petiole, and the epidermis of the 
stem in young plants, while the spheraphides were more common 
in the old stems and berry, but were also found, though rarely, in 
the other parts mentioned for raphides. Crystals in the grape 
have been known for along time. In the common cultivated 
` grape, raphides are abundant, but the largest are only found in the 
_ leaf and petiole, and at times much smaller ones may be looked 
after in the fruit. These crystals, whenever found, gave the 
4 i a te ae 
i Yoh Hys 
test for phosphoric acid and lime. In the pulp of the berry - 
sphæraphides are abundant; those of the fruit stalks were about 
