6 
Wenham, on the Vegetable Cell. 
and distortion of form — a circumstance of particular import- 
ance. 
On dissecting out the centre of the bud at the extreme end 
of a stalk of the Anacliaris, a kind of cellular cone will be 
found, shown PL I., at a, fig. \ \ h b are protuberances extend- 
ing up the sides of the cone, being the germs of future leaves 
in various stages of growth. 
In the first formation of a leaf from the main stem, a small 
nodule or protuberance appears, which is entirely filled with 
granular protoplasm. A number of cavities next become 
disseminated throughout the mass, as represented by fig. 2. 
These are formed in the most random and irregular manner, both 
as to size and position — small spaces being indiscriminately 
mixed with larger ones of perhaps ten times their bulk, much 
resembling the cavities in a slice of bread-crumb. There is 
no special means provided for the formation or arrangement 
of these spaces, neither does it arise from any species of fer- 
mentation, but from the inherent property that protoplasm 
possesses of separating itself from its more fluid admixtures, 
and forming cavities and thread-like divisions, as chance alone 
directs. 
At tliis primitive stage there are no travelling currents of 
protoplasm, a feeble corpuscular motion is all that is to be 
seen. These cavities are the foundation of the cell formation. 
Very minute starch granules make their appearance in some of 
them, even at this period, as shown at a, a, fig. 2. This 
example was drawn from the Jinacharis, but it may be taken 
as tlie representative of the primary cell formation of the 
largest portion of the vegetable creation. The first germs of 
either leaves, flowers, or stems, alike consisting simply of a 
nodule of irregular diversiform cavities, so nearly similar in 
shape and arrangement in widely-different species, as scarcely 
to exhibit any distinctive features of variety, I have selected 
the following plants to exemplify this : — Fig. 3 is a mass of 
cells in their first formation, taken from the centre of a bud 
of Arabis albida^ with rudimentary cavities appearing in the 
body of protoplasm at the apex. Fig. 4 is a leaflet from the 
same plant, with the cells in a rather more advanced stage, 
each cell containing a few minute nuclei, or incipient starch 
granules. Fig. 5 is a malformed stellate hair, the base being 
filled with protoplasm, which, in the upper portion, exhibits a 
tendency to divide itself into cavities and cells. Fig. 6 is a 
leaflet of Reseda^ the apex having burst under the action of 
the compressor, and the protoplasm had exuded into the sur- 
rounding water, in the form of a globule, fdled witli cavities, 
shown at a, a. This accident frequently happens, and may 
