CUKIOSITIES OF YEGETABLE MOBPHOLOGY. 
151 
enquiry is to notice tlie growth and final condition of certain 
parts or organs of different species of plants. Take for ex- 
ample the hairs found on leaves or flowers. They are all ap- 
pendages of the cuticle, and vary from single cells to structures 
of many cells, arranged in a straight line, or in star patterns, 
more or less complicated, in single layers or in many. We 
also find them branched and knobbed. When filled with thin 
fluids they are soft ; but they are capable of being strengthened 
and thickened into thorns, which are distinguished from spines 
as being outgrowths of the epidermis, not of the wood. They 
also exhibit in some cases deposits of silica. Many of these plant 
hairs are well known as microscopic objects; those on the 
leaves of Deutzia scabra, for example, being frequently used 
for exhibition with the polariscope. It is not, however, com- 
mon to find in popular collections the flower-buds of this plant, 
or of D. gracilis, both of which are exquisite objects, especially 
the former. The young flower-bud should be mounted in a 
cell with glycerine jelly, and viewed as an opaque object with 
a binocular instrument of 1^ or 1-inch objective. The 
stellate hairs (fig. 1) shine like silver, and their true form 
is much better seen than when they are compressed in the 
usual balsam mounting. Hairs of this description should be 
contrasted with simple tubular hairs, and also with those that 
branch, or terminate in knobs. The hair of the cabbage-leaf 
is a good illustration of the simplest form. Those on the calyx 
of Salvia have bulbous heads, and those on the stems of 
London Pride exhibit minute terminal bulbs, filled with a fine 
ruby fluid. Many of the Cruciferce have branched hairs. On 
the stalk of the Deutzia flower-buds will be seen long hairs 
like thorns, but not so hard, and surrounded at their basis 
with lesser hairs in star patterns. The Deutzia hairs should 
not be dismissed without taking some leaves of the plant and 
calcining them over a spirit-lamp. Those who possess chemical 
apparatus will find a platina or small porcelain crucible con- 
venient for this purpose ; but it may be effected on a plate of 
brass or sheet iron. The black carbonaceous mass left when 
the process is finished is excessively brittle, but a few of the 
flattest pieces may be placed in a shallow cell, some with the 
upper and some with the lower side at top, covered with thin 
glass, and viewed as opaque objects. The hairs look like a lot 
of steel-gray star-fishes, and their minute tubercles, which are 
well preserved, add to the resemblance. 
Amongst the hairs found on sepals, those of the Grum Cistus 
are particularly beautiful and curious (fig. 2). The cuticles 
of these sepals should be cut off in thin slices with a fine pair 
of sharp scissors, and mounted in glycerine jelly, without com- 
pression. They are then transparent enough to show in the 
