ON EAPHIDES. 
569 
ferce, they occur extensively in the roots ; and they abound in 
the autumn in the base of the bulbs of the Onion, and other 
Liliacece.”^ How could descriptive or systematic botany hope 
for assistance from such vague materials ? 
Nor is the matter mended when we turn from our most 
valuable compilations to the results given in works of original 
research ; for the facts still appear no less ambiguous, no more 
available as natural characters, if indeed they were ever sup- 
posed capable of affording any useful characters at all. Thus, 
even such an eminent observer as Schleidenf summarily dis- 
missed the subject ; for he says, The needle-formed crystals, 
being a combination of a very long prism with an octaedron, 
lie together in bundles of from twenty to thirty in a single cell, 
which they entirely fill up, and are present in almost all 
plants Inorganic crystals are seldom met with in 
cells in a full state of vitality."’^ And, though Payen had 
shown that certain crystals in plants are always produced in a 
special tissue provided for the purpose, the celebrated German 
botanist Link, and our own Edwin Quekett,J came to the 
conclusion that raphides in plants are nothing more than 
accidental deposits, like calculi in animals while the excel- 
lent histologist, John Quekett,§ especially cites the Tulip, 
Onion, and Anagallis among the examples of raphis-bearing 
plants. Again, according to some of our current and best 
treatises on organography, raphides are to be found in any 
liliaceous plant, in the spermoderm of Pandanacece, and in 
the little whitish spots observable beneath the leaf-skin of the 
Marvel of Peru."’^ 
Truly, the whole subject thus seemed little more than one 
of the pretty marvels of the microscope p curious, indeed, 
and not without some hidden meaning or importance, though 
destitute of any apparent rule, perhaps rather connected 
with the aberrations of disease than with the regular and 
healthy state of the plant, and nowise presenting the appear- 
ance even of any sure phenomena likely either to be useful 
in, or to have any conceivable connection with, descriptive or 
systematic botany. 
Now, the truth is that the first list above cited is a hetero- 
geneous assemblage of plants, chiefly affording sphmraphides 
or other crystals ; for not half of the orders specified therein 
* “ The Micrographic Dictionary/’ p. 547. 
t “ Principles of Scientific Botany,” translated by Dr. Lankester, pp. 6 
and 91. 
X Lindley’s “ Introduction to Botany,” 3rd edition. 
§ “A Practical Treatise on the Microscope.” 8vo. Bond., 1855. Page 
