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POPULAE SCIENCE REVIEW. 
stance ? At least I have never found even the slightest hint 
of it among the short diagnoses and long descriptions of the 
orders_, genera_, and species, either in any local Flora or more 
extensive Prodr omus, or System of the vegetable kingdom. 
Yet those books are arranged according to the natural method ; 
and how truly raphides form a fragment of this method we 
have already shown. 
And, in addition to their truth and naturalness, we shall 
soon adduce further evidence of their value and constancy. 
While granting that the, most fundamental and universal 
elementary organ of vegetables is the cellular tissue, how can 
we avoid the admission that their cell-life must possess a 
correlative importance ? And how is the investigation of this 
subject to be prosecuted without a careful attention to the 
results of that life ? Surely we shall never be able to com- 
prehend and realize the mysterious plans of Nature, and those 
infinite details by which she has marked, for our interpretation, 
the true affinities and contrasts of the members of her system 
in the vegetable kingdom, unless we use every diligence in 
our attempts to read her own characters. And how are we to 
do this without a recognition of the phenomena of the cell-life 
as part and parcel of the natural history of every plant ? 
And though raphides and their cells form but a small frag- 
ment of this great argument, it is a portion which, like some 
others, has been strangely overlooked; and this chiefly from 
a neglect by systematists, admirable as their labours have 
been, of a comparative view of the structure and functions, 
affinities and contrasts of the cells of allied flowering plants ; 
in short from a lamentable deficiency in the cell-biography of 
species.* 
Now, then, we are prepared to see how this field, hitherto left 
well nigh barren, may be made very fertile, and the cultivation 
so pleasant and profitable as to promise an additional source of 
rational amusement and information to persons in the country ; 
and in which the ladies of their families might not only parti- 
cipate, but reasonably hope by such participation to assist in 
enlarging our knowledge of botanical science. 
Indeed, besides their mere scientific value, these pursuits 
offer in themselves alone a precious reward. They beguile 
the dull routine of professional and other employments, cherish 
gentle thoughts and calm desires, and multiply and refine our 
enjoyments ; they endear many a rural walk with dehghtful 
associations of each lane, and every alley green, dingle, or 
bushy dell, and every bosky bourn from side to side ; they 
* See Dr. Lankester’s remarks in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 
Science for October, 1863. 
