Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/53

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23

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE CELLULAR INTEGUMENT.


Immediately under the Cuticle we find a succulent cellular substance, for the most part of a green colour, at least in the leaves and branches, which is called by Du Hamel the Enveloppe cellulaire, and by Mirbel the Tissu herbacé. This is in general the seat of colour, and in that respect analogous to the rete mucosum, or pulpy substance situated under the human cuticle, which is red in the European, and black in the Negro; but we must carry the analogy no further, for these two parts perform no functions in common. Du Hamel supposed this pulp to form the cuticle; but this is improbable, as his experiments show, when that membrane is removed, that the Cellular Integument exfoliates, at least in trees, or is thrown off in consequence of the injury it has sustained,