Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  j 
September,  19 17.  J 
Plant  Textures. 
389 
separated  plants,  be  their  home  near  or  far,  on  mountain,  plain  or 
valley.  .Built  of  one  pattern  each  yet  carries  in  itself  a  distinct  in- 
dividuality.   Nor  is  this  all. 
Wonders  in  Cell  Life. — Pass  that  which  can  thus  be  seen, 
whether  by  the  unaided  eye,  or  in  its  micro-networks  of  lace.  Are 
there  not  yet  finer  lines?  Turn  to  the  minute  cells  that  make  the 
lace-fibers.  Each  in  itself  constitutes  an  interlaced  complexity. 
Behold  them,  in  groups  or  singly,  whether  moving  freely  in  the 
plant  blood,  or  securely  locked  within  the  tissues.  Beautiful  struc- 
tures are  they,  some  transparent  almost  as  water  to  the  ordinary 
microscope,  others  shaded  or  colored  green.  Do  not  these  tiny 
structures  make  possible  the  lily's  growth?  As  they  come  and  go, 
spring  into  existence,  become  fixed  or  burst  and  die,  is  not  the  plant 
guided  to  maturity  from  root  to  flower?  Born  into  life  but  to  die, 
their  birth  and  death  create  and  support  the  creature  as  a  whole, 
that  in  turn  gives  to  each  transient  cell  a  home  in  which  to  have  its 
being  and  then  pass  away,  much  like  the  coral  insect  that  makes  of 
the  masonry  it  builds,  its  tomb.  Who  that  views  these  cell  groups, 
too  numerous  for  computation,  too  intangible  in  their  development 
for  human  comprehension,  too  mysterious  in  their  activities  for  the 
grasp  of  man's  intellect,  can  but  question  further  possibilities? 
Each  cell  is  in  itself  a  community  of  activities.  Within  it  we  dis- 
cover structures  such  as  nuclei  and  protoplasmic  masses,  each  being 
a  home  in  miniature  in  which  the  dwellers  are  as  interlaced  entities 
that  play  well  their  part.  Can  there  be  further  wonders  ?  Are  there 
recesses  yet  to  be  explored  ?    Did  not  Milton  write : 
"And  in  the  lowest  deep  a  lower  deep?" 
Life  Points. — Grind  to  a  pulp  the  living  plant  or  any  part  there- 
of.4 Gone  are  leaf  and  flower  and  root.  Burst  the  cells,  mix  their 
contents.  Squeeze  from  the  texture  of  the  plant  the  juice  that  once 
coursed  freely  in  its  veins  and  rested  in  its  cells,  then  filter.  To 
the  eye  it  is  but  as  water;  to  the  microscope  that  brought  to  view 
what  we  have  previously  seen,  it  is  transparent  and  limpid.  No  cell, 
no  fragment  of  material  of  any  kind  is  visible.5 
4  To  cover  and  digest  with  water  a  few  fresh  slices  of  any  part  of  the 
plant  is  as  satisfactory  a  process. 
5  In  a  lecture  in  1890  before  the  New  York  College  of  Pharmacy,  titled, 
"  Infinities  in  Pharmacy,"  I  attempted  to  indicate  the  relationship  that  existed 
between  vegetable  structures  and  manipulative  processes.  In  this  I  empha- 
sized coming  possibilities,  using  this  sentence :  "  Yet  we  know  not  what  in- 
finity of  other  results  is  possible  to  other  forms  of  manipulation." 
