84 
HISTOLOGY OF VEGETABLES. 
curiosity to determine the nature of the clothing 
material, as giving evidence of that in use in the 
country and age in which they were embalmed. By 
microscopic investigation of the texture of mummy 
cloths, it has been shown that the Egyptians used Flax 
only in their manufacture, whereas, in the Peruvian 
mummy cloths, Cotton alone has been discovered. In 
some fabrics from Otaheite, Wool is mixed with Cotton , 
and is recognisable, as shown in Fig. 7 1 , by the zigzag 
transverse markings on the fibre, which are charac- 
teristic of hair. 
In the foregoing examples of woody fibre, the mem- 
branous walls are structureless, having no visible mark- 
ings ; but other kinds exhibit certain peculiarities of 
structure, which depend on secondary deposits of lignine 
in their interior. In coniferous woods, such as Deal , 
the fibres are not filled with secondary deposit, and 
consequently remain tubular. 
In a transverse section of a fossil Palm from Antigua, 
most of the woody fibres will be found to be occupied 
by a concentric deposit like that of the Beech, repre- 
sented in Fig. 49. In the Clematis, the woody fibres 
are exceedingly short, and more or less pointed at both 
extremities; the walls, as shown in Fig. 73, are marked 
with numerous simple pores. These pores are more 
evident, and of a compound or bordered character, in a 
section of Deal, Fig. 74, made in the direction of the 
medullary rays ; in every fibre a row of large circular 
dots or pores may be seen, which are characteristic of 
