Vegetable organography; or, an analytical description of the organs of plants / by Aug. P. de Candolle. Translated by Boughton Kingdon.

  • Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de, 1778-1841.
Date:
1839-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable organography; or, an analytical description of the organs of plants / by Aug. P. de Candolle. Translated by Boughton Kingdon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their respective arrangement, form either the round cellular tissue, or the elongated cellules, or the cellules disposed necklace-like {en chapelet) ; that in this last state, the dilatation of the vesicles always continuing, the diaphragms break, and change the series of necklace-like cellules into dotted vessels, into false tracheae {fausses trachées), and into true tracheae, according to the degree of development. By this system, Treviranus explains how all the parts of a plant seem to derive their origin from the cellular tissue. Kieser gives an entirely different opinion : he refers all this organization to an elastic fibre. When it is rolled spirally, it forms the trachea; when it is disposed in circular or parallel rings, it forms the striped or annular vessels ; when the spires or rings are joined by a porous membrane, the result is the formation of dotted vessels ; when these dotted vessels have their origin in the arti¬ culations, they are contracted at intervals, thus forming strangulated or necklace-like vessels {vaisseaux en cha¬ pelet) ; lastly, when the spires or rings are remote from one another, detached, or united in different degrees, the formation of reticulated vessels results. I purposely pass over several other theories, which agree in different points with those which I have rapidly sketched out : an historical narrative of this subject may be found in Kieser’s Mémoire sur V Organisation des Plantes. What I have said is sufficient to show the extreme diversity of opinion entertained by anatomists, and the almost impossibility of having, in the present state of things, a satisfactory opinion upon points so refined. The only idea which appears common to all these theories is, that all the different orders of vessels have the most intimate mutual relations, and can only be con¬ sidered as modifications of one another; an opinion