Wen HAM, on the Vegetable Cell. 
61 
to be nothing more than a sincere searcher after the truth, 
uninfluenced bj motives of ambition or notoriety ; and it is 
not fair that I should be criticised according to the same 
rigid rules which would be applicable to an established pro- 
fessor. As regards " want of familiarity with the subject," 
I can only say, that for years past I have examined the deve- 
lopment of the vegetable cell, and have been trying, without 
success, to reconcile the facts that I have observed with the 
written statements of Mr. Henfrey ; for it is to these, or such 
as have appeared under his sanction, that I have made the 
most particular reference. This is my excuse for not viewing 
these things through the medium of Mr. Henfrey's eyesight, 
and for falling back upon my own judgment ; and I trust that 
I may be pardoned for so doing. Even to this hour the cell 
theory is by no means a settled question, and I would advise 
those engaged in this study to form their ideas less upon a 
groundwork of contending theories, and apply more diligently 
and directly to the book of nature for information. 
It is to be regretted that any remarks should give rise to 
this form of reply, so directly out of the course of correct 
scientific discussion. I will now proceed to notice Mr. Hen- 
frey's objections, which are scanty enough. He first says, in 
reference to me : — " The objects selected were unfavourable^ 
and not favourable as he imagined ; for young leaves of most 
flowering plants, in the stages figured by him, are not flat 
plates, but cones, or at all events solids having more than 
one thickness of cells in all three dimensions ; therefore the 
view is confused by one layer lying behind another." In 
reply to this I may say, that if Mr. Henfrey had condescended 
to read my paper before thus perverting my meaning, he would 
find these subjects described as " cellular-cones," or " nodules 
of protoplasm filled with cell-cavities so that this objection 
must at once fall to the ground : and to avoid the delineation 
of that confusion he mentions, I had drawn directly with the 
camera lucida the top layer of cells only^ and any error in form 
and position is a trifling one, occasioned by the object being 
slightly flattened in the compressor. 
Mr. Henfrey further remarks : — " But even in the leaves 
of Anacharis the application of dilute sulphuric acid and 
solution of iodine suffices to render the structures clearly dis- 
tinguishable, as quite different from what is represented in 
Mr. Wenham's drawings." No doubt of it ! I believe that 
there are but few recent vegetable structures that would 
submit to such treatment unchanged. I have tried numerous 
experiments with these and other re-agents, but ceased to place 
much confidence in them for the investigation of very young 
