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CHAPTER IV. 



FECULAS, OR STARCHES. 



The Starches of commerce are numerous and highly inter- 

 esting ; they are well worthy of attention from the extraor- 

 dinary influence they exert in the economy of vegetation. 

 Unfortunately however much obscurity invests their history^ 

 which^ as it requires the nicest microscopical investigations 

 to elucidate^ must still occupy both time and attention. 

 Starch is found to exist in all plants^ and although it appears 

 first as a secretion of the plant-cell^ it appears eventually to 

 assume the character of a cell itself. 



Leeuwenhoek^ the eminent German microscopist, asserted 

 that starch granules were cells having soluble contents^ but 

 an insoluble case ; this theory was also taken up by many 

 other philosophical investigators^ especially those of the 



