Hardwicke's science-gossip : an illustrated medium of interchange and gossip for students and lovers of nature . tsummer of 1865. Robert Holland. VEGETABLE E1BRES. A Ta recent meeting of the Quekett Microscopical-£^- Club, a paper was read on the application ofthe microscope to the discrimination of vegetablefibres. The object of this communication was topoint out what had been done, and to suggest whatremained to be accomplished, and the best mode ofperforming it. Although adulterations of food havebeen well cared for and deeply investigated, adul-terations or admixtures in fabrics, whether o
Hardwicke's science-gossip : an illustrated medium of interchange and gossip for students and lovers of nature . tsummer of 1865. Robert Holland. VEGETABLE E1BRES. A Ta recent meeting of the Quekett Microscopical-£^- Club, a paper was read on the application ofthe microscope to the discrimination of vegetablefibres. The object of this communication was topoint out what had been done, and to suggest whatremained to be accomplished, and the best mode ofperforming it. Although adulterations of food havebeen well cared for and deeply investigated, adul-terations or admixtures in fabrics, whether ofanimal or vegetable origin, have hitherto obtainedbut little attention. Yet, it is urged, the subject isan important one and well deserving systematic re-search. All fibres employed for commercial pur-poses may be divided into four classes, two of whichare animal—/. e., wool and silk—and two vegetable;which may be termed vascular and cellular. Wool has a peculiar structure, readily to be dis-tinguished from all other animal and vegetable fibres(fig. 11, b), and differing slightly in its own varieties,. Fi£. 11. O. Cotton ; 0. Wool ; c. Silk. as may be seen by reference to a paper on hairs inour first volume. (Vol. i. p. 29.) Yet we have nowork of authority, and no reliable figures of themicroscopic appearances of different qualities andclasses of wool, even of those ordinarily met with incommerce. It must be possible to characterize mi-croscopic features whereby Saxony can be distin-guished from South-down, and Australian from (fig. 11, c) is more uniform in its character, Jan. 1, 1806.] SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 11 and the difficulty would be greater to point out thefeatures which distinguish the produce of the mul-berry worm from that of the Tussch of India, theMoonga or Erie of Assam, and the Aiiaute of recentintroduction into Europe. Vegetable fibres of the cellular kind are hairswhich invest the seeds of certain plants, Cottonbeing of the chief importance (fig
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