The position and collective form of the component parts of the vascular
bundle in the stem of the maize-plant are well described in the first
section of the work. It is correctly stated that there is a sheath to
the whole bundle composed of strongly thickened fibrous cells, that
each of these cells has its own membrane and is entirely closed, and
that they resemble the bast and the fibrous elements of the wood of
Dicotyledons. The segmented wood-cells and the parenchyma-cells of
the wood arranged in rows are incidentally noticed. Under the name of
fibrous tubes he included the cells of the sclerenchyma-sheath of many
vascular bundles and the true bast and wood-fibres, which latter he
says are wanting in the Coniferae. He explained the secondary growth in
thickness of rind and bast by the example of the shoot of the vine, in
which he correctly distinguished the medullary sheath and the spiral
vessels. In herbaceous Dicotyledons he found the bundles of vessels
to consist of a bast portion and a woody portion, and he attributed
the formation of the compact wood of true woody plants to the blending
together of the woody portions of these separate bundles.
In discussing the parenchymatous cell-tissue he rejects emphatically
and on good grounds the origin of new cells from the granular contents
of older ones, which had been the view of Sprengel and Treviranus, as
also the theory of Wolff and Mirbel, while he maintains against Mirbel
especially, that the separation of fibrous tubes is possible even
where no dividing line can be seen between them in the cross section.
He considers that both in thin-walled and thick-walled parenchyma
the dividing wall is double and the cell-membrane entirely closed.
‘It appears,’ he continues on p. 86, ‘from these observations that
cellular substance consists of separate closed tubes, which may be
round or oval, or more or less elongated, or almost cylindrical in
shape, and these by mutual pressure assume an angular and flattened
form, which is either regular like the cells of the comb of bees or
more or less irregular. Such an aggregate of separate cells (and here
he is certainly quite right) has nothing in common with a tissue,
and the word cell-tissue seems therefore less suitable than the term
cellular substance, composed of cell-like tubes.’ Further on he
rejects Mirbel’s idea of the existence of visible holes in the walls
of cells, and points out that they are not necessary for the movement
of sap. The dispute between Mirbel and his opponents respecting the
porousness of cell-walls was extended at the same time to the stomata
of the epidermis[79], the slits in them being supposed to be apertures
in the epidermis regarded as a simple membrane. Moldenhawer took
occasion to examine the anatomy of stomata more closely, and produced
the first accurate descriptions and figures of these organs, showing
especially that the apertures are not surrounded by a simple border,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account