NOTES ON DECORATIVE GAKDENING. 
mm 
n 
Fig. C. 
(= 
iug into the interior, and if it were separated from the membrane on which it is formed, it would be 
a spiral thi-ead or fibre coiled like a bell-spring, or, if the turns were farther apart, like a corkscrew. 
This mode of strengthening the interior evidently combines hghtness and strength, and, when the fibre 
is a complete spii-al, gives great elasticity ; in fact, a long cell -svith a sjiu-al fibre of this kind, is exactly 
represented by a piece of the old-fashioned kind of elastic tubing, made before caoutchouc was 
employed, consisting of a spiral coil of wii'e covered ^vith leather or some similar substance. We 
meet with cells strengthened by spiral bands, by rings also, as if the tm-ns of the spii-al Tii;. 7. 
had been broken up and separated, and in older cells we often see the turns of the 
spiral, or the rings, connected by new cross pieces running lengthways, so as to give the 
cell the appearance of having a kind of network in the interior. Elongated membranous 
cells, with a delicate spu-al thi-ead, occur most abundantly as strengthen- 
ing parts of dehcate flexible organs ; thus they are abimdant in the ribs 
or veins of leaves, and in the leaf-stalks ; they form, almost entii'ely, the 
veins of the colom'cd petals, and the ribs strengthening the other parts 
of the flowers, and in almost all stems we find a layer of them inclosing 
the pith, having been the first layer of strengthening textm-e formed 
in the region of the wood, while the summit of the stem was young 
and tender. These spiral-fibrous cells are commonly called sjnral vessels, 
as they were formerly supposed to be air-vessels, ft'om their resemblance 
in sti'ucture to the air-tubes of insects ; but they are, in reality, only a 
form of the cellular tissue — the most delicate and elastic kind of 
strengthening structui'C, and have nothing to do with the resphation 
or nutrition (Figs. 6, 7). 
The spiral layer is sometimes very much thicker than in the situa- 
tions just mentioned. The wood of the Cactus tribe is cliiefly composed 
of cells in which the thickening layers are deposited spii-ally, and to 
such an extent, that the sphe becomes a riband, instead of a fibre, 
apphed edgeways to the cell-wall, so as to resemble a spiral well stah-- 
ease in the inside of a column or tower. 
The ringed cells, and those exhibiting the reticulations, sometimes 
occur singly, like the elongated sphal-fibrous cells known as spu'al vessels ; and all these kinds may 
be readily examined in the " strmgs " of rhubai-b, which are the veins, or ribs, of the leaf-stalk, and 
can he very easily detached for microscopic examination in pieces of rhubarb which have been softened 
by cooking. Sometimes more than one spu-al thread is formed in one cell ; they then all rmi in the 
same du-ection, side by side. 
These are the most important anatomical characters of the simple cells, and are retained when the 
cells enter into the composition of the more complex arrangements, which we shall next arrive at. 
Fig. 6. — The upper ends of t^vo 
spii-al fibrou.s cells, (or sj}iral 
vessels,) "with the fibres partly 
imi'oUed. 
Fig. 7, — Portions of annular fibrous 
cells. 
NOTES ON DECORATR^ GARDENING.— Foxtntains. 
By H. NOEL HUMPHREYS, Esq. 
fHE most highly wrought effects produced in garden architecture have been those efiected by 
means of fountains ; of this, the well-known gardenesque water-works of Versailles and St. Cloud 
are sufficient evidence. 
Su- Uvedale Price says: — "With respect to fomitains and statues, as they are among the most 
refined of all garden ornaments, so are they the most liable to be inti'oduced with impropriety. The 
efiect, however, (especially that of water mixed with sculptm-e,) is of the most brilliant kind." Some 
have asserted, that fountains are unnattu'al ; but natm'al Jets d'eau, though rare, do exist, and are 
among the most surprising exhibitions of nature, which, in Iceland, and other volcanic regions, have 
struck the traveller with wonder. 
But though we find natural fountains in the wildest scenes of nature, it is not, however, necessary, in 
making artistic use of a natui'al law that produces a. Jet d'eau, to smTound the artificial jet -nith the 
circumstances that sm-round it in natm-e, any more than it is necessary that the architect, in building 
with stone, should imitate in his work the rude form of the quany fi-om which it was taken. On 
the contrary, as fountains produce the best effect near buildings, and in combination with statuary, 
I 
