SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
251 
walls permit. The cortical fibres and tubes are similar, or rather they are 
modifications of the same structure. They also are closed at their ends, 
and pass insensibly into cells ; liquids alone can traverse their walls. The 
liquid they enclose cannot properly be termed latex, for the latter term 
has been applied to liquids of quite a different character. Neither, on the 
other hand, can the tubes themselves be termed laticiferous vessels, for this 
expression is also applied to another class of canals. It seems advisable 
to reject the expressions altogether, as they are calculated to lead to much 
confusion. In plants, each individual portion performs its own functions ; 
in each cell the phenomena of cyclosis, arid the formation of nutritive 
compounds take place, each allows the elaborated fluids to pass through 
it for its own purpose, and then transmits them to its neighbour ; and in 
this manner the necessity for a vascular system is removed. — Comptes 
Rendus , lvii. No. 1. 
Observations on Raphides is the title of a short article by Professor 
Gulliver, in the November number of the “ Annals of Natural History.” 
The writer conceives that the description of a natural order cannot be 
considered complete till it embraces a notice of the presence or absence of 
these peculiar structures. He proposes that the term raphidiferous be in 
future employed to designate a natural order including species which 
possess raphides. In the Onograceoe , these crystals are so well marked, 
that they may be detected even in the seed-leaves. Even in the ovules 
and their coats, and in the placentae, these crystals may be found abun- 
dantly, whilst they are not present in any of those parts in plants of a 
kindred group. The evening primrose order may be regarded as the type 
of raphidiferous vegetables, as the crystals may be found in every portion 
of the plant, embryonic and adult. In the sketch which accompanies 
Professor Gulliver’s paper, the raphides of the fuchsia’s ovule are very well 
represented. In the natural orders Dioscoreacese, Aracese, and Asparagaceoe, 
raphidic crystals are well seen also. 
Literature of Raphides . — Dr. Lankester has contributed a valuable paper 
on the above to the October number of the Quarterly Journal of Micro- 
scopical Science . It is really a history of what has been done toward 
explaining the use and distribution of these crystals. We find that so 
early as Malpighi’s time, raphides had been observed in plants, and that 
at later periods they engaged the attention of Quekett, Lindley, Rainey, 
Gulliver, Schultz, Schleiden, and Dr. Lankester himself. Almost all 
plants contain acetate and malate of lime, dissolved in the sap ; also citrate, 
tartrate, and oxalate of lime, either in the solid form or in solution. The 
writer suggests that even the soluble salts of vegetable juices might easily 
be identified by the slow evaporation of the latter and microscopic exami- 
nation of the deposit. It is strange that notwithstanding the intense 
acidity of the oxalics, no crystals of oxalate of lime can be detected in this 
plant. “ The acicular crystals to which the name raphides has been more 
particularly applied, have been often described as having the same compo- 
sition as the larger single and compound crystals. They are prismatic in 
shape, and lie together in bundles of from twenty to thirty in a single cell. 
They are sometimes enveloped in a gummy matter, which on being 
moistened distends and bursts the cell in which they are contained, and 
