104 
Osborne^ on the Wheat Plant. 
what I noticed of cyclosis_, ho,., as 1 saw nothing new, and 1 
cannot fix any precise period for the formation of chloro- 
phyll-granules, or a membranous lining to a new cell, as I 
found very great variety in these particulars. My observa- 
tions have been made during uncertain and scanty leisure, 
and are professedly imperfect. 
Vegetable Cell-structure and its Formation, as seen in 
the Early Stages of the Growth of the Wheat Plant. 
By the Hon. and Rev. Sidney Godolphin Osborne. 
(Read June 24th, 1856.) 
Having now for many months been engaged in an attempt, 
by means of the microscope, to trace the nature of vegetable 
cell-growth, I have great pleasure in laying the result of my 
investigation before the Microscopical Society. 
Nearly the whole of my experiments have been made on 
the wheat plant. By means of various very simple contri- 
vances, I have been able to grow this plant under conditions 
in which I could watch its actual course of growth with 
object-glasses as high as the half and quarter inch of Mr. 
Ross's manufacture. 
In addition to observations made upon the plant in actual 
growth, I have made many hundred dissections of it, at the 
different stages of its early development; and I have now 
about one hundred carefully made preparations, embracing 
specimens of every condition of the progress of the contents 
of a seed of wheat, from the first indication of germination, 
to the full formation of the roots, and a growth of green leaf 
of from six to eight inches. 
I have made no attempts to resolve any question in che- 
mistry, — I have made no use of chemical tests. All I have 
to relate, is what my eyes have seen, and what I am prepared 
with pleasure to demonstrate from preparations I now possess. 
Unbiassed by theories I have read, I have sought after only 
such truths as could be practically illustrated by means of 
the microscope. 
I have used throughout object-glasses, made for me by 
Mr. Ross, ranging from the two-inch to the twelfth power. 
The most useful 1 have found to be his improved half-inch, 
and a very excellent sixth. It is requisite however, or at all 
events convenient, to use the twelfth power occasionally, to 
determine minute features of structure which may be shown 
with the sixth, but not so clearly as to be beyond dispute. 
