A microscopical examination of the taste bud shows it to be composed of three structures. First, there is a series of modified epithelial cells closely packed side by side and forming a kind of hollow shell and determining the limits of the taste bud. These are sometimes called marginal, or supporting, cells. They are very long and narrow and their thickest part is that occupied by the relatively large nucleus. The extremities of the cells directed toward the taste pore are quite long and thin and are gathered together so as to form a small circular opening, the neck of the taste beaker or bud. Within this hollow globe thus formed some of the same kind of cells are found, but it is almost entirely occupied by the second type of structure, the taste cell. These ordinarily range in number from 10 to 16 within any one bud, but sometimes as few as two or three have been found. These cells are longer and even more slender than the supporting cells and are very closely packed. The peripheral portion of the cell is very much elongated and ends in a hair-like filament which extends into the taste pore. All of these hair-like endings of the taste cells gather into a kind of brush within the taste pore. The centrally directed ends of these cells may have various forms—that is, there may be one long, thin branch or a number of branches, none of which, however, pass beyond the limits of the taste bud. The third kind of structure found in a taste bud is perhaps the most important and consists of the fine branches of nerves which enter the taste bud at its base and twine around the taste cells. They do not actually grow into the cells, but pass through the taste bud and end very near to the taste pore in the form of small knobs or knots. Some of the fibrils, after reaching the peripheral end of the bud, turn back and really end in the more central portions of the bud. _Relations Among the Structures Within the Taste Bud_