568 
ON THE NATUEE AND DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF 
EAPHIDES AND OTHEE PLANT- CEYSTALS. 
BY GEOEGE GULLIVEE, E.K.C.S., F.E.S., 
LATE PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF 
SURGEONS. 
•o> 
W HEN no physiologist doubts that the life of the entire 
plant is the sum of the life of its numberless consti- 
tuent cells^ and we consider how much intimate structure has 
been made subservient to the various branches of natural 
history it seems amazing that the value of raphides and their 
organic vesicles as truly natural characters in descriptive 
botany should not have been sooner discovered. 
But so much confusion has prevailed in the use of the term 
raphides^ in the statements of the occimrence of the facts^ and^ 
from the paucity and uncertainty of those facts_, that the total 
neglect of them as diagnostic characters in the orders or 
genera of the vegetable kingdom has been unavoidable. 
In truth_, how could it be otherwise^ when we find all crys- 
talline formations in vegetable cells included under one term^ in 
our latest and best book of microscopic anatomy ? The pre- 
vailing confusion seemed likely to be perpetuated unless cor- 
rected by an appeal to the book of nature. There are few 
of the higher classes^'’^ we are told in the former book^ which 
do not contain raphides ; they are very abundant in the her- 
baceous structures of the Monocotyledons, generally, and espe- 
cially those of the Aracece, Musacece, Liliacece, &c. ; they also 
abound in the Folygonacece, Gactacece, Fwpliorhiacecej Urti- 
cacecB, &c., among the Dicotyledons. They are usually found 
only in the interior of the cavities of cells, but in some cases 
they occur in the intercellular cavities, — perhaps, however, 
accidentally. They may occur in almost any part, but are 
found most extensively in the stems of herbaceous plants 
(Monocotyledons in general and Gactacece) ; they also occur in 
the bark and pith of many woody plants (Lime, Vine) ; leaves 
likewise frequently contain them in vast quantity (Hracece, 
Musacece, LiliacecB, Iridacecs, Polygonacece ) ; also sepals {Orchi- 
dacecBj Geraniacece) ; in the Ehubarb, and also in UmhelU- 
