REVELATIONS IN HAIRS 
1 2 I 
state of things and it is not until a 
form is found lying on its side that the 
secret is let out. It is now seen that 
this spot is the juncture of the ex- 
panded part of the hair with short steins 
which hold the pointed shields above 
the surface of the leaf like tiny com- 
pass needles poised on the tips of their 
pins. 
Strikingly different in form from the 
hairs of the turnip leaf as these hairs 
may seem at first glance, may not these 
peltate hairs be but the ultimate de- 
velopment of the flared tip found as a 
lar form on the leaves of its cousin, 
our commonest garden plant, the to- 
mato, so we are in no way prepared 
for the armies of short stems topped 
with four perfectly transparent golden 
globules closely clustered into a 
square. Light is refracted by these tiny 
spheres, each only about 1/75° of an 
inch in diameter, into glittering, 
orange-colored specks so brilliant that 
the effect is like viewing a dazzling 
light through myriad pin pricks in the 
leaf (Figure 6). 
Another typically pronged form 
FIG 5— PELTATE HAIRS FROM COMMON NIGHTSHADE (SOLAN UM NIGRUM). 
variation from the normal? An occa- 
sional form of chrysanthemum hair, 
like Figure 4, suggests a possible in- 
termediate type in the scheme of transi- 
tion from originally a simple shaft. 
So far we have found no really 
pronged or stellate hair, but this 
crumpled bit of leaf from the common 
nightshade leaves nothing to be de- 
sired in this direction, as we see in 
Figure 5. These prongs vary from 
four, set stiffly at right angles, to six 
or more in number, springing from the 
expanded bottom joint of the ever- 
present vertical prong. 
These are typically stellate hairs and 
of a type so well defined that one nat- 
urally expects to find a somewhat simi- 
comes from the tall hollyhock and is 
seen in Figure 7, but one of the “prong- 
iest'’ of this type comes from the leaf 
of the tall mullein, where they are 
present in such numbers as to give the 
thick and velvety effect to this leaf 
which we all know so well but are per- 
haps not quite so familiar with its pos- 
sibilities as a valuable adjunct in mi- 
lady’s beauty processes as were some 
of the coy maidens of days past. It has 
been whispered that before the days 
when complexions came in jars and 
could be scraped off with a putty knife, 
this velvety leaf served in lieu of the 
modern rouge pot. A brisk rubbing 
with a mullein leaf, it has been said, 
“will cause to appeer ye ruddy glow of 
